Brave New World
by Phoenix43
Summary: It's just another day at the Perryville private high school for Twilight and her friends-or is it? Pinkie Pie is making claims that seem outrageous, but that the friends may soon come to find aren't so farfetched after all...
1. Stranger in a Strange Land

**Brave New World**

A "My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic" fanfiction

** Preface:** Confound these ponies, they drive me to write fanfiction! In all seriousness, though, this has to be one of the greatest fanbases I've ever called myself a part of. If you would have told me a month ago that I'd be a fan of anything "My Little Pony", I would have called you crazy; however, now I can't imagine NOT loving this show. While the opening line was meant to be funny, there is some truth behind it. I have been on a writing dryspell for a while now, even with my original stuff. Then I discovered MLP: FiM and I've had ideas pouring into my mind, both fanfic and original. As weird as it may sound, this show very well may have been my muse, and this fic was one of the products. I'll admit, it's not your typical MLP fanfic, and I'm sure there are some people that will hate it, but I hope that most of you will enjoy it for what it is.

**Prologue**

_ This story takes place in a world known as Estrios. Geographically, it is similar to the world that we call "Earth", although the names of countries, cities, and towns are considerably different from what we know. Specifically, the story takes place in the country of Tairiku, a country that closely resembles what we know as "The United States of America"; however, while the two countries are geographically similar, they are politically opposite. While our USA is run under a democratic government, Tairiku—and all of Estrios, for that matter—is ruled by a monarchy. Tairiku's monarch is known as Queen Celestia, a woman known for being an intelligent, capable, and gentle ruler. Her family has worn the crown for ten generations._

_ Our story begins in the town of Perryville, where our beloved ponies wake up not as ponies, but as humans. What's more, none of them—or rather, most of them—have no recollection of even being ponies. _

**Chapter 1: Stranger in a Strange Land**

Sunlight streamed into the window, settling across Twilight's face and creeping into the cracks between her eyelids to slowly wake her from her slumber. She sat up and stretched as the last remnants of sleep faded from her mind. Like it or not, it was time to start a new day.

Twilight slid her legs out from under the covers, planted them firmly on the floor, and then stood up, taking a moment to fully gain her balance. It seemed her body hadn't quite let go of its sleep state after all. Once her legs were steadied she proceeded to the bathroom, where she proceeded to do what every individual does in the bathroom after waking up. The final bullet on her daily morning agenda was to slip into her school uniform, which consisted of a light-gray, knee-length skirt, short-sleeved white blouse, and a long-sleeved blazer that matched her skirt. Her school's emblem—a pair of crossed swords with a palm leaf lying over the middle, all of which was lying on a shield—was emblazoned upon the blazer's breast. Supposedly the emblem originally belonged to the Perry family, who not only founded the town of Perryville, but also the elite, private Perryville Academy that Twilight attended. From what she had learned in history class, the Perry family had served under Celestia's ancestors as knights, and had helped her bloodline gain control of Tairiku's throne. Their reward was a handsome fortune, which they had used to construct the school and town. A quick glance at the clock told Twilight that she would not have time for breakfast, so she grabbed her backpack and exited her room.

She was immediately greeted by the smell of books upon exiting her room, which was not at all surprising, considering the fact that her room was in the school's library. Perryville was an expensive school to attend, and even though she had been sent there under Lady Celestia's orders the school had not been willing to offer a complete tuition break. As a compromise, Twilight agreed to take up the long-vacated position of library keeper. While the librarians handled the tasks of book check-in and check-out, it was Twilight's job to make sure the books stayed in good condition, and that they were properly filed. Most people would consider it a mind-numbing task, but for a bookworm like Twilight it might as well have been heaven. She quickly made her way down the winding set of stairs that led from her room to the floor of the library, and from there she proceeded to exit the building all together.

Outside the sun was shining brightly, and there was not a single cloud to be seen. The air had a slight chill to it, a sign that fall was just around the corner, but it was a nice break from the previous day's blistering temperatures. Twilight took a deep breath of the fresh morning air as she traversed the path that led to the school's main building, a three story structure that covered several acres by itself. Some people liked to argue that it was a colossal waste of land to have a school that big, but when those people were reminded that the school offered specialty eduction in pretty much any field imaginable they quickly clammed upon. Beyond the school's east wing, Twilight could see the dorm students filing out of their buildings and making their way to the school. That was another benefit of living in the library: there was no need to struggle her way through a crowd just to get to the building. In front of the school, cars were pulling up and dropping off the students who did not live in the dorms—these were the local rich kids whose family owned most of the businesses within Perryville.

As Twilight made her way up the flight of stairs leading to the school doors, a familiar voice called out, "Twilight, how are you today?" She turned to find a girl with long, curled purple hair getting out of a limousine. Rarity's family was one of the richest in Perryville, and while that didn't seem to affect Rarity's personality too much, it did allow her to get away with a few things that most students wouldn't, such as modifying her school uniform. She had never been happy with the basic gray uniforms that the school required students to wear, so she made a habit of designing her own uniform based around the school's template. Her designs typically incorporated quite a bit of lace and frills, and her uniforms were never in the school's typical gray. Today's uniform was fairly simple, though: a baby blue color with lace added to the hem of the skirt. Other than that, it resembled Twilight's own uniform.

"Good morning Rarity! I'm a little tired, but that's about it. How about you?" Twilight replied.

"Oh I'm marvelous dear, thank you for asking," responded Rarity as she made her way up next to Twilight.

The two girls entered the building together, navigating the hallways to reach their respective row of lockers. As they rounded the corner to their lockers, they noticed three other girls standing right where they needed to be. Twilight immediately recognized them as her and Rarity's group of friends, Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy, and Applejack, who most people simply called AJ. These weren't their real names, of course, but rather nicknames that they had picked up either throughout their lives.

Twilight's nickname had been given by her parents, since she had the habit of studying well past the twilight hour. Rarity also garnered her name from her parents, who considered her beauty to be—what else—a rarity!

Rainbow Dash stood out the most among all of them; it was hard not to with her rainbow streaked hair. She had come to Perryville Academy on a sports scholarship, and had been the school's top member of the track team since accepting the scholarship two years ago. The combination of her unique hair and her speed had earned her the nickname. She claimed that her hair color was natural, but some of her detractors argued that it was dyed in an attempt to distract competitors. Her body was very lean, a necessity for a runner, and a natural result for someone who spent most of her free time running.

Next to Rainbow Dash was AJ, a resident of Perryville. Her family owned a large apple farm on the outskirts of town, and while they weren't rich per se, they were considered a valuable part of the town, so AJ had been accepted into the school with a heavily discounted tuition fee. Her freckled face seemed to always have a smile on it, despite the fact that AJ spent most of her free time working the apple orchards with her family. It was this profession that had ultimately generated her nickname among her family and friends. As usual, her long blonde hair was braided into a ponytail.

The last member of the group was a girl with long, straight light-pink hair named Fluttershy. She was very short and petite, standing a full head shorter than AJ and Rainbow Dash, who were just about the same height. Twilight had never managed to get Fluttershy's story, since she rarely talked about herself—it was hard enough just getting her to talk! When she did talk, it was always with a meek voice that you had to strain to hear. This, combined with her overwhelming shyness, had been the cause of her nickname.

Twilight and Rarity were greeted by the trio as they approached the row of lockers lining the wall. "Well, it looks like miss rise-and-shine is running late today!" Rainbow Dash heckled Twilight, who was usually the first one of the group to make it to school.

"Aw, leave her alone. She was probably up late studying, which is more than can be said for some people," AJ retorted in her thick southern accent. Rainbow Dash shot her an annoyed look before replying.

"Who needs books when you're the fastest athlete around? I haven't met anyone that can beat me yet! Just you wait, I'll be on the Olympic track team one day!"

Twilight tossed her backpack into her locker as AJ and Rainbow Dash bickered back and forth. It was almost a daily ritual at this point, with neither girl truly feeling any animosity towards the other. As usual, Fluttershy stood against the lockers, staring at her Mary Janes and wringing her hands nervously. A sudden realization hit her as she began extracting the books she would need for first period. "Hey guys, where's Pinkie Pie today?"

Before anyone could even process Twilight's question, a loud voice pierced the already impressive volume of the hallway. "Giiiiiiiiiiiiiirls! Something's wrong! Something is really wrong!" a girl's voice shouted. All five of the friends looked in the direction that the voice was coming from to see a girl with pink, bushy, curly hair running straight for them. The other students in the hallway were hurrying frantically to get out of her way. She finally stopped her sprint when she reached Twilight and the others.

"Well you have sure made quite the scene," Rarity commented with a clear note of disapproval in her voice as she took note of all the stares being turned their way.

"Um..Pinkie...I don't think the school likes yelling," Fluttershy said in a voice so small it was barely audible.

"We have bigger problems then yelling!" Pinkie yelled. "Don't you guys see what's wrong? I mean, what are these?" She held up her hands, wiggling her fingers in Twilight's face. "Or these?" She said, stomping her feet on the ground. "And especially these!" Before anyone could stop her, Pinkie had pulled her blouse up and exposed her breasts.

"Pinkie Pie! What's gotten into you?" Applejack hollered, throwing herself in front of her friend before any of the boys could get a peep show. She pulled the resistant girl's blouse down and looked her in the face. "Calm down, ya hear?"

"I do say Pinkie, that was quite uncouth," Rarity commented, shooting a disapproving look at her friend.

"What's wrong with you guys? How can you not see something's wrong? I mean, what are we? What happened to our bodies?" Pinkie Pie fired her questions off on after the other, her eyes darting between all of her friends, looking for someone to share her sentiment.

"What are we? Pinkie, how many times have I told you to pay attention during Biology class? We're humans, or to be more technical homo sapiens," Twilight commented, shaking her head.

"But we're supposed to be ponies!" Pinkie Pie retorted, nodding her head as though that would make everyone realize she was right.

"Ponies? Uh, Pinkie Pie, I think you left a few apples out of your bushel this mornin'," Applejack commented, a concerned look on her face. "I mean, we're all used to you actin' weird and whatnot, but this is too weird, even for you!"

"Besides, if you were a pony why would you have put on clothes?" Rainbow Dash asked, chuckling at the absurdity of the situation.

"Some mean lady stopped me when I ran out of the room I was in and forced me to put these on," Pinkie Pie replied with a pout. "They don't even look cute."

The five minute warning bell rang, signaling to all students that they needed to hustle to their classrooms or else receive a tardy mark. "Look, Pinkie Pie, we've been over this before. The "mean lady" is your dorm adviser, and whether you like her or not you should show her some respect. We don't have time to indulge your delusions right now; we need to get to class," Twilight said, an air of finality in her voice.

Pinkie's face dropped and she gave a weak, submissive nod as her friends filed past her, headed for their classroom. With no idea of what to do, she simply followed them, hoping she was going the right way. "You're supposed to be my friends, so why won't you believe me?" she said to no one but herself as she walked through the classroom door, closing it behind her.

End Chapter 1

After chapter notes: So I hope you guys enjoyed this first chapter. I know it's not terribly long, but I try to keep my fanfiction stories that way. I can't speak for everyone, but I know my eyes get tired if I have to read a really long document from a computer screen. Additional author notes and such can be found on my blog, which is linked in my profile.


	2. Delerium Trigger

Quick Note: I made some revisions to Chapter 1 and have uploaded the revised chapter. You may want to take a look at the new version if you are a returning reader.

**Chapter 2: Delirium Trigger**

The students took their seats as the second bell rang, signaling the beginning of homeroom. Twilight had to guide a completely lost Pinkie Pie to her seat, only to then realize that Pinkie had completely neglected to bring her textbooks with her. "Pinkie, seriously, I don't know what's gotten into you today. I mean sure, you're usually hyper and you don't make much sense on a regular basis, but this is beyond that. Maybe you should just go back to the dorms and rest." She moved Pinkie's bangs out of the way and placed her hand upon the pink-haired girl's forehead. "Well, you don't have a fever. Maybe it was just a bad dream."

"Why?" Pinkie muttered.

"Hm?"

"Why won't you believe me? You know I wouldn't lie to you guys!" Pinkie yelled, tears welling up in her eyes as she stared at Twilight with a pleading look upon her face. "This is weird. We don't belong here."

At this point, the entire class was looking in Pinkie's direction, thanks to her outburst. A few people were murmuring rude things like, "Wow, guess ol' crazy finally snapped," which was only making Pinkie cry even more. Twilight was about to offer soothing words, but the classroom door opened and in walked their homeroom teacher.

"Ms. Sparkle, you of all people should know better than to be out of your seat," the teacher said with a stern, yet anger-free voice.

"I'm sorry, Ms. Cherri," Twilight responded, heading back to her seat while giving Pinkie a concerned look.

At the front of the class, Ms. Cherri started to take attendance. She was a young woman, perhaps in her late twenties—she would never divulge her true age—with purplish hair that hung to the middle of her back. Overall she was a nice person, accept she refused to use nicknames, which resulted in her calling out "Diane," when she reached Pinkie's name. When Pinkie didn't reply, Ms. Cherri called out her name again. Fluttershy, who sat in front of Pinkie Pie, turned around and said, "Pinkie...she's calling your name."

Pinkie Pie looked up and said, "Diane's my middle name, please don't call me by that. Just call me Pinkie."

If there was a prize for most confused look, Ms. Cherri would have won it. The befuddled woman looked at her roll call sheet and back at Pinkie several times before saying, "Your name is listed as Diane, just like it's always been."

"Oh," was all Pinkie could manage before she completely broke down into a crying fit. Again, Mr. Cherri stared on with a look that was begging for someone to clue her in. At this point, the rest of the class had begun staring at Pinkie like she was some kind of sideshow act.

"Uh, don't worry Ms. Cherri, it's just uh, "girl stuff", if ya know what I mean," Applejack quickly offered, hoping to diffuse the situation before an even bigger deal was made.

"What exactly do you mean by "girl stuff"?" Ms. Cherri replied, a note of agitation creeping into her voice.

"You know Ms. Cherri, GIRL stuff, like REAL girl stuff," Applejack said, while trying to nod her head towards her lap as discreetly as possible. Ms. Cherri stared at her for a few seconds, completely lost, before it finally dawned on her.

"OH! That kind of girl stuff. Well, yes, I suppose that can play games with one's emotions. Alright class, eyes forward. I'm going to continue taking role now."

The rest of the class hesitantly turned around to face the front of the class as their homeroom teacher finished her daily ritual. After she was finished, she went through a list of general announcements, as well as club-specific announcements, which a good majority of the class ignored. After all, general announcements were usually posted on the central billboard, and any club announcements were typically known by the club members well before the homeroom teachers ever got around to announcing them. Upon finishing this final part of her daily routine, Ms. Cherri slid all of her papers back into her roll book and lifted it from the podium at the front of the classroom. "Alright everyone, your first class will begin in five minutes," she announced before exiting the room. At Perryville Academy, the teachers came to the students, as opposed to the students coming to the teachers. For the first half of the day, students stayed in one general class for general lessons, such as Math, English, History, etc., before breaking off into their specialized fields of study for the second half of the day.

With their homeroom teacher gone, the class began to erupt in a torrent of talking, most of it about Pinkie Pie. One of the boys in class turned around and shouted, "Hey Freakie, what happened? Did your last screw finally come loose?", which garnered a wave of laughter from the students sitting around him. Rainbow Dash, who had been sitting quietly at the front of the classroom up until this point, finally lost her reserve and stood up, approaching the boy before he could blink and grabbing him by the collar of his shirt.

"Pinkie Pie might not be the most normal person, but she's still my friend. I think it's time for you to apologize to her, before I make you!" she shouted, pulling her fist back to emphasize her point.

"So the dyke sticks up for the freak, it figures. Hey, maybe the two of them are lovers!" The boy laughed in Rainbow Dash's face as he said this, almost as if he was daring her to hit her.

"We've been through this before: I'm not gay! You know what, just eat my fist you son of a bi-" Rainbow Dash stopped mid-curse as she felt someone grab hold of her fist. She turned her head slowly, fully expecting to see their first period teacher standing their. She breathed a sigh of relief when she saw Rarity standing behind her instead.

"I swear Rainbow Dash, you really need to work on that temper. Violence doesn't solve anything, especially when you're dealing with mangy mongrels like him." She approached the boy Rainbow Dash had been preparing to hit and looked him up and down. "Chivalry really must be dead these days if a supposed gentleman of this esteemed academy would go so far as to insult a lady. Don't even get me started on your intelligence. If you truly think a person's sexual orientation can be determined by the color of their hair or their appearance in general, then I fear the day that you procreate."

The boy stared incredulously at Rarity. "You think you're so special because your family owns a fashion company, don't you? You know what, you're just a spoiled, stuck up-" If he finished his sentence, Rarity couldn't hear it over the outcry of the other boys in the classroom.

"Hey, you don't speak to Ms. Rarity like that!"

"Rarity is a true beauty! How dare you disrespect her!"

"You and me, the courtyard at lunch time. I'll show you what happens to people who talk like that to Rarity!"

Clearly defeated, the boy dropped back into his seat, his eyes fixated on his desk. Rarity shot him one last contemptuous look before grabbing Rainbow Dash's wrist and dragging her over to Pinkie Pie's desk. "Look, Pinkie, I don't know what's going on today, or why you're so out of it, but we're still your friends," Rarity said, draping her arm around her friend's shoulder. She shot Rainbow Dash a "say something" look.

"Oh, uh, yeah, it's cool Pinkie. I mean, we all have days where we're feeling, uh, off?" she finished her statement as a question, earning a disapproving glare from Rarity. Not wanting to earn her friend's ire, Rainbow Dash quickly stumbled for something else to say. "Look, Pinkie, I'm not good at being inspirational and all that, but if you need someone to talk to, I'm here for you. You can count on me to have your back."

Pinkie looked up at both of them with red, swollen eyes. "Why won't you guys believe me?" she asked bluntly.

"Look, Pinkie, how are we supposed to believe you when you're claiming that we're-" Rarity leaned in and dropped her voice to barely a whisper, "-ponies? That just makes no sense."

It looked as though Pinkie wanted to protest, but before she could get the words out Rarity and Rainbow Dash began rushing back to their seats as their first period teacher walked through the door. Dismayed, and with no books or a clue as to what was going on, Pinkie just sat their, staring absentmindedly as the bulky male teacher began silently scribbling mathematical equations on the blackboard. She snapped out of her daze when the student to her left tapped her on the shoulder. Pinkie turned her head to see the student holding out a stack of notebook paper and a pencil. On the top sheet of paper, a small note had been scribbled: _You should at least make sure to take notes. -Twilight_

Pinkie looked to the other side of the room to see Twilight staring back. She smiled and gave Pinkie a thumbs-up before going back to writing down the aforementioned equations. From that point on, the morning went by normally. It even seemed like everyone had forgotten about Pinkie Pie's outburst earlier in the day. Yes, everything did seem perfectly normal—at least until lunch time.

Twilight returned to the classroom after a quick visit to the cafeteria. In her hand she held a container with a chicken sandwich and french fries. Students at Perryville Academy were allowed to eat lunch in their classrooms or in the cafeteria, as long as they were at their specialized classes on time after the lunch period ended. As she entered the classroom, she paused for a moment to locate her friends, who had grouped their desks together near the classroom's windows. She made her way over to the group, setting her food down on her desk before taking her seat. After a quick look at the group, she asked, "Does anyone know where Pinkie went?"

Fluttershy looked up from her salad and softly responded, "She stepped out right after you; I think she was headed for the cafeteria."

"That's odd, I didn't see her down there," Twilight replied, in between bites of her sandwich.

Rarity looked over at Twilight, clearly concerned. "Is it really okay to leave her alone after this morning?"

"Yeah, she's fine; it's probably just an elaborate prank," Rainbow Dash interjected with a laugh.

"I dunno," Applejack replied. "This is too stressful for a Pinkie Pie prank. She's always done pranks that everyone could laugh at in the past. I don't see why she would change now."

Everyone fell silent after that, their minds heavy with concern. Twilight placed her half-eaten sandwich back in its styrofoam container and closed it up; the situation had robbed her of her appetite. She gazed out of the window next to her, wondering what she could do for Pinkie, when she noticed their missing friend wandering into the courtyard. "Hey guys! I found Pinkie!"

Before Twilight could even react, the rest of the girls had gathered around her and were looking into the courtyard to confirm Twilight's claim. Pinkie Pie was indeed walking around in the courtyard. Everyone began to breathe a simultaneous sigh of relief until they noticed the pink-haired girl sit down in the middle of the grass and pluck a handful of clover. "What in tarnation-" Applejack began, until she observed Pinkie bite the tops of the clover off. A group-wide groan followed as they watched her chew for a few seconds before spitting out the chewed bits of plant. She wiped her tongue with the back of her hand a few times before standing up and running off.

"Okay, that was definitely not normal Pinkie Pie behavior," Twilight observed, turning back to look at the rest of her friends. Everyone else nodded their agreement as they returned to their seats and their lunches—although none of them appeared to be too eager to start eating again. The usually chatty group was now completely silent as they all contemplated over Pinkie Pie. Finally, after what seemed like ages, Applejack broke the silence.

"Look, someone's gotta talk to that girl or nothin' is gonna get better," she stated, crossing her arms and leaning back in her seat. "I'm gonna bring her over to my place after school today. Maybe she'll feel more comfortable without everyone crowding around her. How's that sound?"

The rest of the girls exchanged glances with each other, as if to say, "Are there any other ideas?" When no one spoke up, Applejack let her voice be heard again. "Alright then, it's settled. Mack'll be pickin' me up right after, so she can hitch a ride with us."

Everyone else simply nodded their heads, silently admitting that they really couldn't think of any better ideas. With nothing better to do, they all went back to eating their food, although at this point it was more a result of not wanting to waste food as opposed to genuine hunger.

Pinkie Pie returned to the classroom shortly before the lunch period ended, taking her seat near the door and not so much as glancing over at the others. They watched her intently as she sat in the seat, looking down at her lap and not moving at all. A few moments before the end-of-lunch bell rang, Twilight finally stood up and approached her. "Hey Pinkie, are you ready for your specialty classes this afternoon?" she asked, trying to ease the tension that was clearly in the air.

"Specialty classes?" Pinkie replied, a distant tone in her voice, as if her mind was somewhere else.

"Yeah, you know, your event planning classes."

"I guess."

Twilight was frantically trying to think of ways to keep the conversation alive. Pinkie usually loved talking, yet now she wasn't even offering up full sentence replies. To make matters worse, she didn't even seem the slightest bit enthused about her specialty classes. On any given day, she would normally be bouncing around the room in excitement, waiting for the afternoon bell to finally ring. Whatever was wrong with her, it was serious. "You remember how to get there, right?" was all she could finally offer up to try and salvage the conversation, which was in critical condition at this point.

"Not really."

"Oh...well, you hang a right as you exit the classroom, then you make a left at the end of the hall and follow that path past the next two hallways. At the third you want to make a right, and the room is the third on your right," Twilight explained, trying to stifle the disbelief that she had to give Pinkie directions to a room she walked to five days out of the week.

"Thanks," was all Pinkie replied. The conversation had clearly flat-lined. The afternoon bell rang and Pinkie rose from her seat in an almost robotic motion. She left the room, turned left as instructed, and disappeared from sight.

*Riiiiiiiiiing*

The end of day bell rang, and a tidal wave of students poured from the school's classrooms. Students quickly collected their items from their lockers before dashing for the exit, anxious for that feeling of freedom that always comes from leaving school. Applejack fought her way through the crowd, squeezing out of the front door and running down the stairs to avoid being trampled by the herd of people. She stepped to the side of the staircase and sat her backpack down as she watched the doors intently, waiting for Pinkie Pie to emerge. After about ten minutes, the pink-haired girl emerged, her eyes pointed at the ground. She was moving unbelievably slow; she looked as though her spirit had been crushed, turned to dust, and then scattered to the wind. "Hey, Pinkie, come with me!" Applejack called, mustering up as much cheerfulness as she could. Her friend didn't reply until she reached the bottom of the steps.

"Okay, I guess. What do I have to lose at this point?"

The smile on Applejack's face wavered for a second, but she quickly caught herself. _Gotta remain cheerful!" _she thought as she wrapped her arm around Pinkie's and lead her to a beat-up old pickup truck on the far edge of the school's driveway. Inside the truck sat a tall, muscular man. His skin was dark, tanned by days spent working in the sun, and his hair had clearly been bleached by the sun. He wore a white t-shirt under blue overalls. When Applejack reached the truck, she threw open the door and hollered, "Hey Mack, I'm bringin' a friend with me. That okay?"

Mack looked over at Applejack and Pinkie Pie, hesitated, and then simply replied, "Yep."

Pinkie Pie stood outside of the truck, a slow smile spreading across her face. The other two individuals didn't seem to notice, until she shouted, "Mack? As in Big Macintosh? Oh thank goodness! Please talk some sense into this silly filly! She doesn't remember our life in Ponyville at all!"

Applejack stared at Pinkie Pie in disbelief, before slowly covering her face with her palm and shaking her head. Mack narrowed his eyes and replied, "Big Macintosh? Lil' lady, I am not an apple, nor am I a product of Steve Jobs. As for this "Ponyville", ain't ever heard of it. Now if ya'll are done playin' games, we got apples to harvest at home."

As the weight of Mack's words set in, Pinkie's face began to slowly drop. She watched as Applejack climbed into the truck and slid into the middle of the bench seat before climbing in herself. Applejack reached across and pulled the door shut. "I gotta say, that was a bit impressive Pinkie. I don't think I've heard Mack talk that much in over a year," the blonde commented, trying to inspire some kind of reaction. Her attempts failed, though, and she decided to just leave Pinkie in peace for the remainder of the ride.

It was approximately a half-an-hour trip from the school to Apple Acres, the apple orchard that Applejack's family had owned and operated for over a century. The orchard was situated on the outskirts of Perryville, away from the hustle and bustle of the small town. Mack turned off of the paved road and headed down a dusty old dirt road lined with apple trees on either side. The trees were all ripe with fruit, and from her window seat Pinkie could see people hard at work harvesting the apples throughout the orchard. They emerged from the tree-lined path into a wide dirt parking lot. Straight ahead was a large farmhouse that could only be described as a small mansion. To their left and back was a large red barn. Mack swung the truck toward the barn and parked it inside. Without a word to the two girls, he opened the driver's side door and exited the vehicle. "D-did I make him mad?" Pinkie stammered out, watching the retreating man through the back window.

"Naw, Mack just ain't big on talkin'. You should know tha-well, never mind," Applejack said in response, motioning for Pinkie to open the door so that they could both get out. After a moment of fumbling with the door handle, Pinkie finally managed to figure out how it worked. The two girls exited the barn through the same path that brought them in and headed towards the main house. As they approached the front of the house, Pinkie noticed an old lady sitting in a rocking chair. Her hands seemed to defy her age as they worked in fast, intricate motions to crochet the blanket that she was making.

"Granny!" Applejack leaned down to hug the old woman. "You remember my friend Pinkie, right?"

The old lady adjusted her glasses and squinted at Pinkie, leaning forward to get a better look. "Oh, yes! I remember you! You threw me that 83rd birthday party! One of these days you must tell me where you found those fine gentlemen." The excitement in her voice suggested that the party had been one to remember; unfortunately, Pinkie had no recollection of the event. Instead, she just smiled and nodded.

"It really is great to see you again Granny...Smith?" Pinkie offered in return, ending the sentence hesitantly, hoping that she was right.

"Yes dearie, that's right. Granny Smith, that's what they call me! 'Course, Smith wasn't always my last name. I took the name from my second husband. He was a soldier, you know. Fought in that war back in the sixties and got his left arm blown clear off. Before that I was married to Mr. Jackson. He passed away from a terrible apple harvesting accident some twenty years ago I'm afraid. Oh, but he was strong-" the old lady kept babbling on about her deceased first husband, which caused Applejack to chuckle, especially because Pinkie seemed to be holding onto her every word. Without saying anything, AJ slipped into the house to change.

Ten minutes later, Appljeack emerged from the house, dressed in a pair of blue jeans and a white t-shirt. It wasn't the most flattering outfit, but it was just right for picking apples. To her surprise, Granny Smith was still babbling on about her past loves, and to her greater surprise Pinkie Pie was still listening. In fact, Pinkie had taken a seat on the porch railing, completely fixated on the old woman's words. With a chuckle, Applejack tapped her friend on the shoulder and said, "Pinkie, if ya don't mind I could really use your help with these apples."

Pinkie looked over with a pout, whined, and then finally replied, "Okay." She turned back to Granny Smith and said, "I'm sorry to cut our conversation short, but Applejack needs my help."

"Oh it's no problem dearie! I know how these things are. I'll tell you about my third boyfriend Alfred next time you come! The things that man used to do will have you in stitches!" Granny Smith exclaimed, enthusiastically patting Pinkie Pie on the arm.

Pinkie proceeded to follow Applejack down the front stairs, across the dirt lot in front of the house, and into the apple orchard. The trees were arranged in neat, organized rows, with plenty of space for the workers to walk in between. More importantly, though, was that they allowed enough space for the tractors to fit through—after all, this was how the apples were ultimately collected from the individual workers.

The two girls proceeded passed at least two dozen trees whose apples had already been harvested. Pinkie surmised that this was Applejack's designated harvesting area, a fact that she confirmed when they reached their thirtieth tree. Under the tree sat several stacks of wicker baskets—which Applejack quickly grabbed two of—and a ladder. "Alrighty, this is where we start," she said, tossing one of the baskets to Pinkie. She then proceeded to open up the ladder, pressing it into the soft soil to steady it as much as possible. When she was satisfied, she hurried up to the top and called down, "I hope you're ready!" before quickly picking apples and dropping them down.

Pinkie barely had time to react as the fruit rained down at her. At first she dodged the falling apples, allowing them to land in the grass, before she remembered the basket in her hands. She strengthened her grasp on it and began positioning it under the red orbs, catching the good majority of them. Applejack's hands were moving like lightning, a skill that was undoubtedly developed from years of experience, and Pinkie was surprised that she could even keep up. Within moments the basket had become too heavy for her to hold, and she yelled for Applejack to stop.

"Sorry sugar, I didn't mean to overwhelm you," the southern girl apologized as she descended the ladder. She took note of the number of apples on the ground compared to the number in Pinkie's basket and nodded with approval. "You definitely did better'n most of the guys that usually helped me out. I'm impressed. Then again, it's not like this is your first time either." She patted Pinkie on the back, taking the basket from her and setting it down. "Okay, now it's your turn to pick!"

Without a word of protest Pinkie climbed up the ladder and started to reach for one of the remaining apples. As she touched it, a wave of memories began to roll over her. She saw herself harvesting apples at the farm before—not during Apple Bucking season, for she had plenty of those memories—but of this world, where she had hands and feet, and where large pieces of equipment came to gather the hard-picked apples. The problem was, they didn't feel like her memories. She was undoubtedly the one picking the apples, but it felt like she was watching them from afar. Her whole body began to tremble as the vivid images washed over her. A faint voice was calling her, but she could barely hear it until Applejack began shaking her. "Pinkie! Hey, are you okay? You need to watch your step or you're gonna hurt yourself!"

Blinking, Pinkie looked at her surroundings. She was no longer at the top of the ladder, but at the bottom, her body at an odd angle. Applejack had her by the shoulders. "You're darn lucky I managed to catch you. Are you sure you're okay to be pickin' apples?" the blonde asked, her voice thick with concern.

Pinkie shook her head. "No, no I don't think I am. I think I need to go home."

Applejack sighed, a mixture of concern and frustration playing through her emotions. "Well, if that's what you need then I'll see about getting Mack to take you."

Again Pinkie shook her head. "I'll just take the bus. I have my pass in my breast pocket. Wait, how do I know that? This is all too weird. I need to go!" Without another word she broke free of Applejack's grasp, running as fast as she could through the apple orchard. She could see the dirt path that brought her back to the farm, so she used it as a guide to get back to the main road. The bus stop was just a few feet from where she emerged. After only a few minutes of waiting, the 58 pulled up to let her on. Her feet pulled her on board, her hand methodically scanned her pass, and then she found herself sitting down in the third seat from the front. How she knew to do all this was lost to her. It was like the instructions were just flooding into her mind and her body was simply acting on them. She sat in the seat, clutching her head, trying to make sense of everything. Nothing made sense, and no matter how hard she tried she couldn't figure out the situation. The bus trip went on for at least twenty minutes, until her stop came up. Again her body seemed to move on its own as she stood up and walked off the bus, sitting down on the bus stop bench. The number four would take her the rest of the way to the academy. "How do I know all of this?" she muttered to herself, fighting to hold back the tears that were welling up in her eyes. If her friends were around she could let loose since they always stood by her, but out here she couldn't trust anybody. She had to get back to the academy.

The wait felt like an eternity, but eventually the number four pulled up and she got on, repeating the steps from the previous bus. As the bus rolled on she fought to keep her nerves together, trying to get her mind to think rationally. Someone had to have an answer for her; someone had to know how to make sense out of all this, but who? She wracked her brain, trying to think as clearly as possibly, when it finally came to her. "Twilight," she quietly exclaimed. But where would she find Twilight? That was the problem. Again she wracked her brain until the answer came to her. "The library! Wait, that one actually makes sense!" Her mind seemed to settle a bit now that she had a plan of action in mind, although the flood of memories was making no notion of stopping anytime soon. Every so often the bus would pass a building that would spark another memory.

They passed Cranston Bakeshop, where she had purchased the birthday cake for Twilight's fifteenth birthday party. A few blocks beyond that was Jungle Jamboree, an after school day care for children in the town's public school system. Pinkie recalled memories of occasionally helping out there during her free time. The closer the bus came to the school, the more often these sorts of memories occurred. She tried to push the memories out of her mind, but the flood was too great. Several failed attempts caused her to finally give up and just observe the memories, hoping that something would make sense in the jumble of scenes. Unfortunately she could claim no such luck. The bus rolled up to the gates of Perryville Academy, and Pinkie Pie exited the vehicle, more mentally disheveled than she had been all day. "Twilight will have the answer," she told herself again, setting her sights on the campus' west wing, where the library resided. This was one unexplainable memory that she was finally happy to have. Her fast walk turned into a full on run as the library came into sight. She burst through the library doors, drawing angry glances from the librarians. With an apologetic wave she hurried through the building to the back, up the stairs to the second floor, and through the lone door.

Twilight was seated at her desk, a large tome open before her. She had already completed her coursework for the night and was now reading about physics just for fun. Her head snapped around as she heard her door swing open. She fully expected to see one of the school's librarians standing in the doorway with a stack of books that needed to be filed, so she was caught off guard when she instead found Pinkie Pie. Her mind fumbled for something to say, before settling on, "Hey Pinkie. I thought you were going to pick apples with AJ."

Pinkie closed the door behind her, locking the deadbolt to ensure that no one would disturb them. This action caused Twilight to shift uncomfortably in her seat. After making a round of the room to make sure they were alone, Pinkie finally spoke. "I was with her, but I started having all of these...memories pop into my head. I'm in them, but I don't feel like I'm actually the one in them. I know things that I shouldn't know: the bus routes, the history of this town, stories of places we visited, how to get to your room. Twilight, what's going on here?"

If Twilight wasn't completely unnerved before, she was now. It almost seemed like Pinkie was having an complete mental breakdown, and she did not know what to do to help her friend. What she did know was that she had to approach the situation cautiously; after all, if Pinkie Pie was truly unstable, then saying or doing the wrong thing could potentially set her off. After a few moments of silence, she slowly began to speak. "You mentioned something about us being ponies this morning, right?"

"Yeah," was all Pinkie offered as a reply.

"Okay, and I assume you have memories of being a 'pony'? People, places, that sort of thing?"

"Yeah."

"Alright. So those memories seem completely natural to you, but the memories from this world—from reality—seem completely foreign?"

"Yes, Twilight, that's basically what I said," Pinkie snapped back.

Twilight sighed and rose from her desk, approaching her small personal bookshelf. She pulled out a large book labeled, "The Young Psychologist" and flipped it open to the index. She scanned through until she found what she was looking for, then opened the book to the desired section. "Pinkie, it's possible that you're experiencing the onset of dissociative identity disorder. I'm obviously not a psychologist, but it seems like this 'pony' version of you has a pretty distinct personality. Then again, you're claiming to be from a completely different world altogether, so maybe it's something else. I really think you should see a professional."

Pinkie collapsed to the floor, covering her face with her hands. "I'm not mentally insane, Twilight. Why won't you or anyone else believe me? We're from Ponyville, we're ponies! We're not supposed to look like this. The only thing that hasn't changed is our hair." She sobbed loudly now that her last hope was gone. She had been certain that Twilight could explain everything, but that was clearly not the case. There was no doubt in her mind now—she was alone in this world. Unless...

"Hey Twilight, where's Spike?"

"Um, Spike?" Twilight responded, clearly confused.

"Yeah, Spike, you know, little purple dragon? Green spines?"

"Pinkie, dragons don't exist, and I've never met anyone named Spike. I really think you should go back to your room and lay down. Maybe you'll feel better in the morning, and if you don't, I would seriously recommend seeking professional help," Twilight said, an air of finality to her voice.

Completely dejected, Pinkie Pie picked herself up off of Twilight's floor and walked over to the bedroom door, unlocking it and swinging it open. "I see. I'm sorry to have troubled you." She made her way out of the library and to the east side of the school grounds, where the student dormitories resided. Into the "Chesterwood" dormitory building she went, where she proceeded to the third floor, room 305. Somehow she knew that the key to the door was in her right skirt pocket, attached to a balloon keychain. She no longer cared how she knew this; her friends didn't believe in her, so why did it even matter at this point. Without turning on the light or undressing she threw herself onto the bed and surrendered to the sweet embrace of sleep.


	3. The Sickness

**Chapter 3: The Sickness**

**Opening Comments:** I finally read "Cupcakes"...

It was a bright, sunny day, without a cloud in the sky. Twilight trotted lazily through the streets, enjoying the beautiful weather. There were ponies all around her, engrossed in their own conversations or business. Every now and then one or two would stop what they were doing and raise a hoof to wave to her. Twilight smiled and waved back before continuing on her course. She did not have any particular goal in mind, although the idea struck her to visit a certain pegasus' cottage. After a moment of thought, she decided that it would be a nice way to enjoy the weather. As she altered her course accordingly, the world around her began to blur and darken, until the scene was gone. Seconds turned into moments, and still nothing returned. Then, in a bright flash, she found herself standing inside what appeared to be a tree, surrounded by bookshelves. "Okay, this is weird," she thought aloud. "When did I get back here?"

"What do you mean? You've been here all day," a boy's voice replied. Twilight looked around frantically before spotting a small, purple dragon on top of a ladder. From the looks of things, he had been putting books back on the shelves.

"Don't be silly Spike, I was just outside enjoying the nice weather," she said in response, walking over to a window to open the curtains. When she did, she was met with the sight of pouring rain. "Okay this is weird."

Spike descended the ladder and walked over to stand beside his four-legged friend. "It's been like this for the past three days. Are you sure you're feeling okay?"

The world began to blur again, and Twilight shook her head in an attempt to fend it off. "No, I don't think I am. Something's wr-" she never managed to finish her thought before the world went dark.

Twilight sat straight up in bed, sweat pouring from her forehead. She reached for the lamp on her nightstand and flipped it on. A quick glance revealed that she had performed this action with fingers—not hooves. Her human status was confirmed after a quick glance in the small hand mirror that she also kept on the nightstand. She began to chuckle softly. "Pinkie's story must have really gotten to me," she rationalized aloud. "A world full of talking ponies, complete with a little dragon named Spike. Yeah, she got me." A glance at the clock revealed that she still had a full two hours to sleep, so she switched off the lamp and snuggled back into her bed. As she began to drift off, a thought occurred to her. Again she switched on her bedside lamp, then proceeded to open the small drawer on the night stand. From within she extracted her cell phone, hit the '3' button, and then hit send. The phone rang three times, and halfway through the fourth a groggy Pinkie Pie answered.

"Hello?"

Twilight's voice was hesitant as she measured her words. "Hey, Pinkie. It's Twilight. Um...how are you? I suppose you made it back okay?" A long pause followed before Pinkie finally responded.

"It would have been nice to hear from you before now, but yeah, I got back okay. I'm not feeling very well, so I'd like to get back to sleep."

"Well, alright...as long as you're okay," Twilight said. "Sleep good then."

"Bye," was Pinkie's sole reply before the line went dead. For a moment, Twilight debated calling her back, but decided against it. Even someone like Pinkie Pie would be upset if their friend didn't even think to check in on them when they were upset.

I can't believe I didn't even think to check up on her until now, Twilight thought to herself. I'm such a jerk. Well, at least I know she's okay. I can worry about apologizing when we meet up in the morning.

She placed her cell back into the nightstand drawer before laying her head down on the pillow. After a few moments, she began to fall into an uneasy sleep.

At school the next morning, Twilight stood at her locker, waiting for her friends to join her. Rainbow Dash was the first to arrive, much to Twilight's surprise. The athlete was usually the last of the group to show up in the mornings. When questioned about her unusual early arrival, Rainbow replied, "I was too worried about Pinkie to do my usual running practice yesterday, so I woke up early to make up for the lost time. I didn't really have time to go back to sleep after I finished up, so I figured I'd just come here." She shrugged her shoulders as if to dismiss the issue and proceeded to extract her notebook and texts from her backpack before tossing it into the locker. Twilight looked at the books and shook her head.

"Really Rainbow, you should take better care of your books." She took Rainbow's copy of their literature text and held it out as an example. "The pages are coming away from the binding, the cover is all bent up, you've got so many pages dogeared—is that a coffee stain? This is book abuse!" Twilight's eyes looked as if they might burst from her head as she doted over the book, shaking her head at every new travesty she found. Rainbow Dash couldn't help but laugh.

"Sorry Twilight, I know it's rude to laugh, but I think you're the only person that would accuse somebody of 'book abuse'." She took the thick volume back from her friend, handling it with just a bit more care than usual. As she carefully tucked the book under her arm, she heard a familiar voice call out to them.

"'Mornin to ya, Twilight, Rainbow." The thick southern accent gave away Applejack's identity before either girl even looked in her direction. The blonde girl joined them in front of the lockers. "So how are ya?"

"Hey AJ, what's u-holy mother of Celestia! What happened to you?" Rainbow Dash exclaimed, pointing at Applejack's face—or, more to the point, her eyes, which were swollen and bloodshot.

"Aw, I didn' sleep much last night. I was too worried 'bout Pinkie Pie. Darn near cried about every tear I had worryin' over that girl," Applejack explained.

Twilight patted her friend on the shoulder, a knowing smile on her face. "You can stop worrying. She paid me a visit and then made it back to her dorm. I feel like a jerk for not even thinking to check up on her until four a.m., though."

Applejack nodded in response, a relieve look spreading across her face. She moved to put her backpack in her locker, and as she was doing so she asked, "So what made you decide to call Pinkie at that time of the mornin' anyway? Seems awfully un-neighborly to wake someone from their sleep."

"Oh, that," Twilight said with a chuckle. "Well, it might be wrong to be amused, given the circumstances, but I think Pinkie's rantings got to me yesterday."

Twilight proceeded to tell them about her meeting with Pinkie Pie the previous evening, and then went on to discuss her dreams. As she finished up, she heard a voice from behind ask, "So that's what happened with Pinkie Pie then?" She spun around to find Rarity and Fluttershy standing behind her.

"Yeah..how long have you two been there?"

"Around the dissociative identity disorder part. I didn't want to interrupt you," Rarity explained as she moved past her friends to access her locker. Fluttershy, however, remained rooted to her spot, focused on her hands.

"Um...Twilight, you mentioned that you were visiting me in a cottage, and you said that I cared for small animals, right?" the shy girl asked, glancing up a few times.

"Well, yeah, but I don't see the relevance. Is there something you're not telling us?" Twilight cocked an eyebrow as she watched her friend begin to smile and blush.

"Oh no, it's just that I love small animals. Even if it was a dream, it makes me happy to know that I got to care for them."

If she were speaking to anyone else, Twilight would have called into question why something so simple would make someone so happy. With Fluttershy, though, it was a miracle if you got her to say two words, so Twilight decided that it was best to leave the situation alone. After all, she didn't want to make Fluttershy regret speaking. For better or worse, the conversation quickly turned away from the Pinkie Pie situation as the rest of the girls began discussing their activities on the previous evening. Rainbow Dash had spent two hours practicing at the track before returning to her dorm room to play video games, ignoring her homework entirely. Rarity spent most of the evening sketching out design concepts for a new line of clothing her family wanted to introduce. Her family made it a point to work alongside their designers so that everyone would be happy with the results. Fluttershy spent the evening caring for the animals used for the school's Animal Grooming and Care program, which didn't surprise a single one of the girls. The five minute warning bell rang, snapping them all from their conversation. As they gathered up their books, Rainbow Dash looked around the group and said, "Hey guys, Pinkie Pie never showed up."

At Dash's realization, the rest of the girls looked up and down the halls, thinking that perhaps Pinkie was keeping her distance after the previous day; however, there was no sign of her. After a moment of thought, Twilight finally spoke. "She mentioned that she wasn't feeling well when I talked to her this morning. Maybe she decided to stay in bed? I wish I could call her to see if she was okay." Much to the dismay of the student body, cell phones were not allowed within the actual school building. The faculty saw them as a distraction, and if they found a student with a phone it would be instantly confiscated.

The sound of Rainbow Dash's locker slamming brought Twilight out of her thoughts. Her rainbow-haired friend was in the middle of shoving her books back into her backpack. "What are you doing?" Twilight asked.

Rainbow Dash smiled and slung her backpack over her shoulder. "Well, you're worried about Pinkie, right? I'm going to go check on her." A disapproving look started to spread onto Twilight's face, but before she could say anything, Rainbow Dash continued, "I didn't do any of the homework from yesterday, anyway. If I stay, I'll end up getting scolded. Besides, I'm going to be an Olympic star one day, so I don't need school as badly as the rest of you guys." She flashed a smile at her friends and dashed down the hallway before anyone else could protest her decision. As she made her way through the hallways, she had to slow down a few times to weave her way through crowds of students who had delayed entering their classrooms. After what seemed like an eternity, she finally reached the front doors, bursting through them as if they were the tape at the finish line. Outside, she took the steps two at a time, her skirt flying up around her. Thankfully, she was wearing a pair of biking shorts under her skirt, to 'protect her modesty' as Rarity put it. She didn't bother to slow her pace until she had put some distance between herself and the school building.

Now that she was a safe distance from the prying eyes of the teachers, Dash took a moment to admire the weather. It was a fairly warm day for fall, without a single cloud to obstruct the blue sky. She slipped out of her blazer as she walked, draping it across her arm. Man, this is great running weather! Maybe I should stop by the track... She shook her head to clear the thought from her mind. What kind of friend would she be if she blew off Pinkie Pie for track practice. It only took her a few moments to reach the dormitory courtyard. She passed the fountain in the courtyard's center and began winding her way through the rows of dormitory buildings, which were lined up to the left and right of the main pathway. Each building had four floors, with each floor containing approximately twenty rooms. There were four buildings to a row, with three rows of dorm buildings to each side. Dash followed the path past the first building to her right, turning to cut between it and the third building. The path behind the two buildings split three ways: to the left, right, and straight to the third row of buildings. She took the left path and approached the third building in the row. Before she could enter, though, she was approached by a cross-eyed, blonde haired girl carrying a sack full of newspapers. Rainbow had spoken with the girl on a few occasions in the past and now, like then, made every attempt to avoid looking her straight in the eye. "Er, can I help you?" she asked, directing her gaze towards the dorm building.

"I'm just hear to pass out today's issue of the school newspaper!" the girl said happily, pulling a copy from her sack and handing it to Rainbow Dash. "We have a really good front page story; you should check it out!"

"Um, yeah, that's great," Dash replied with a nervous chuckle, taking the paper and using it as a focal point. "Shouldn't you be in class though?"

"Oh, I get excused from homeroom to make my deliveries! I need to put one in every mailbox, so I need to get going," she explained, opening the door to the dorm building. Dash waited until the girl was busy stuffing newspapers into the small mail boxes just inside the building before entering. She felt bad for the way she acted around the girl, especially since everyone called her "Derpy" for the way her eyes looked, but she just couldn't help it.

Without stopping, Dash made her way up the center staircase until she reached the third floor. She proceeded to turn right and follow the hallway to the last door on the left, labeled "305". Taking a deep breath, she knocked on the door several times and waited for an answer. When one didn't come, she gently called out, "Pinkie?" Again she waited, and again she received no answer. With no other ideas left, she decided to try the door knob, and was shocked to feel it turn.

Rainbow Dash pushed the door open and stepped inside. Despite the curtains, there was enough light coming through the room's lone window to allow her to see Pinkie Pie huddled up under her comforter, seemingly asleep. Dash closed the door and approached Pinkie's bed. "Hey Pinkie, it's me, Rainbow Dash. Twilight said you weren't feeling well." Pinkie still didn't respond. As she reached the side of the bed, Rainbow Dash extended her hand and placed it on her friend's forehead before pulling it back almost immediately. "Holy cow, you're burning up!" exclaimed Rainbow Dash. That shout seemed to finally wake Pinkie from her deep slumber.

"Huh? Oh, Rainbow Dash, it's you. I was just having some cake at Sugarcube—oh, that's right," her voice sank as she looked around the room and realized where she was. "It's hot in here." Pinkie pushed the comforter off of herself, revealing that she was still wearing her school uniform, now soaked in sweat. Dash shook her head.

"You need to get out of those wet clothes," she commented, walking over to Pinkie's dresser, which sat at the foot of the bed. She rummaged through the drawers until she found a pair of sweat pants and a plain pink t-shirt, which she tossed onto the bed. "You should put these on."

Without a word of protest, Pinkie sat up, pushing her frizzy bed-hair out of her face. She slipped out of her school clothes and into the outfit that Dash had picked out for her before laying down again. Dash took the soaked uniform and tossed it into the small laundry basket near the door. She then proceeded into the room's small bathroom to look for a washcloth. The bathroom was situated to the right of the room's door, and though it was cramped it was a much better alternative than the communal bathrooms that other private schools utilized. The bathroom was laid out so that the sink was to her immediate left as she entered. Right next to the sink was a toilet, and across from the toilet was a small shower stall. Next to the shower stall was a towel rack, where Dash found the washcloths she was looking for. She grabbed one and stuck it into the sink, running cold water on it until it was thoroughly soaked. After wringing all of the excess water from the cloth, she carried it out into the main room and placed it on Pinkie's forehead. "This should help cool you down," she told her friend.

"Thanks Rainbow Dash. Maybe when I feel better you can show me a sonic rainboom again," Pinkie Pie muttered as she drifted back to sleep. Dash found herself wondering what a sonic rainboom was, but decided to just let it go. She pulled the comforter over Pinkie Pie and took a seat at the desk next to the bed. Within five minutes she was bored.

Gah, I need something to do or I'm gonna go crazy! Dash thought to herself, glancing around the room. Her eyes fell on the television, which sat directly across from Pinkie's bed. She had never watched daytime TV before, thanks to school, so this would be her chance. You can't do that! You'll wake Pinkie up! she scolded herself. Yet again she scanned the room, looking for anything that might keep her slightly occupied. After almost giving up hope, she remembered the newspaper that she had discarded along with her bag after entering the room. She retrieved the paper and returned to her seat, unfolding the periodical and staring at the front page. Dash wasn't much for reading, but the front page headline quickly grabbed her attention, and she found herself diving into the article.

** Group Claims Queen Celestia Unfit Ruler; Demands She Relinquish Throne**

A local activist group, going by the name "Shame on the Night", claims that Queen Celestia has proven to be an unfit ruler. While the group offers no justification for their claims, they are demanding that Queen Celestia relinquish the throne and all familial ties to the royal line. Shame on the Night claims that its leader would be much more suited for the role of leading Tairiku. While the group seeks a peaceful resolution, they have also made it clear that they would be willing to resort to "traditional means" of overthrowing a monarch if the need be. The royal police force has been attempting to track down the group, but the members have proven to be elusive. Their messages are distributed online, typically from public IP addresses that are available to countless users, such as those at coffee shops and fast food restaurants, leaving a dead end on the electronic trail. We were able to contact Sergeant Richard Skoll of the royal police force for comment.

"Make no mistake, these people are little more than propaganda enthusiasts," Skoll comments. "While this sort of speech—no matter how deplorable—is usually protected under the free speech clause of our constitution, we cannot ignore the fact that the group has threatened militant action against the throne. In this situation we have moved past simple ramblings to what can only be described as terrorist threats. We will not ignore this, nor will we show any mercy to the members of this group."

When asked about what measures the force was taking to investigate, Skoll declined to comment. "This is a shaky situation, and the less information we divulge about the investigation, the better. These people are elusive enough without us giving them tips on what we're doing."

Skoll did offer advice to the general public, though. "If you witness any suspicious individuals within a public establishment offering free wireless internet connections, do not hesitate to contact local authorities," Skoll instructs. "Possible suspects are people sitting alone, as far from the general populace as possible. If you suspect somebody do not—I repeat, DO NOT—approach them. We are unsure of how dangerous this group is at this time."

Queen Celestia's family rose to power almost a century ago, in the last great war. Tairiku has experienced it's longest period of peace and prosperity under her family's rule. For a more in-depth coverage of this event, please pick up a copy of our town's local paper, The Perryville Chronicle.

Rainbow Dash closed the paper and sat it down, sitting back in the chair. It wasn't the best written article, but she had to admit that it was interesting. It wasn't uncommon for there to be dissenters among Celestia's followers, but this was the first time that she could remember anyone outright threatening to use violence. She thought on it for another moment before shrugging it off. As far as she was concerned, there was nothing that she could realistically do for the situation, so as long she could keep running she would be happy. Besides, what harm could an activist group realistically do against Celestia's royal army? Her thoughts were interrupted by a groan from Pinkie Pie.

Dash looked over to check on her, but it seemed that she was only grumbling in her sleep. She said something about oatmeal muffins, which made Dash chuckle a bit. "Leave it to Pinkie to dream about baked goods," she thought aloud. She reached over and checked the washcloth on her friend's head. It was starting to warm up, so she took it into the bathroom and soaked it in cool water again, wrung it out, and replaced it on Pinkie's forehead. She then retrieved her discarded paper and began scanning through it for anything else that might be semi-interesting.

**After-chapter thoughts:** I was originally going to have another section to this chapter, but I decided it would fit better as the start of Chapter 4. As always, a more expanded version of these can be found on my blog, which is linked in my profile, for those who are interested in what I have to say about the chapter.


	4. Feathers

**Chapter 4: Feathers**

Opening Comments: Fluttershy time! Also, I finally obtained a copy of Huxley's Brave New World, too. I'm in the process of reading it now.

Fluttershy slowly made her way through the crowded hallways as students began to make the daily mad dash to their lockers. The end of the school day was always hectic, and her voice was so small that no one would likely hear her if she were to get squashed in the sea of bodies. For that reason, she was content to stick to the wall of lockers and gently pick her way through the crowd whenever a clear opening appeared. This process was time consuming, considering that she had to come from the far end of the school's west wing to the center of the main building, but her desire to save time was trumped by her desire to avoid physical pain. By the time she actually reached her locker, the hallways were mainly cleared, save for a few stragglers and the couples who enjoyed flirting in their so-called "discreet" spots.

When she reached her locker, she gently placed her books on the ground and then began entering the combination on her lock. Out of the corner of her eye she saw a hand slam up against the locker next to her. She jumped and let out a small "eek" before turning to see to whom the hand belonged. A boy's face met her gaze, inches from her own. His hair was buzzed close to his head, and he was wearing his uniform was in a completely disheveled state. "Hey there. How's about you and me go and get something to eat beautiful?" His breath smelled like a mixture of cigarettes and morning breath, causing Fluttershy to stifle a gag. She began to quiver in fear, for she was not used to having someone this close to her.

"Um...I...well...you see..." she stammered out, looking everywhere but at the boy, her voice barely audible.

Before the boy could say anything else, another male voice called out to him. "Yo, Steve, whacha doin over there?" The second boy approached the two of them to get a better look. His appearance was similar to that of the first boy, although his features were sharper and he wore his pants in the appropriate place, as opposed to around his thighs. As he reached the two of them he began to smile. "Oh, so you finally worked up the nerve to ask her out. What's her name again? Felicia?"

Steve gave his friend a mischievous look. "Yeah man, but I like that cute little nickname her friends have for her. What was it again? Fluttershy? Yeah man, that's it." He looked back at the terrified girl in front of him. "So whadaya say 'Fluttershy'? How 'bout I take you out and we get rid of that 'shy' part?"

At this point, Fluttershy was visibly quaking with fear, her eyes wide as she glanced back and forth between the two boys. Her back was pressed against the lockers, and the boys had her blocked in fairly well from all other sides. There was nowhere to run, and even if there was she doubted her legs would have the strength to carry her far. She began silently praying for some kind of help, when she heard a familiar voice call out, "And just WHAT do you think you're doing with my friend?" Fluttershy looked over to see Rarity standing to Steve's right, her hands on her hips, and her face red with anger. A few feet behind Rarity stood Twilight, her arms overflowing with books.

Smiling, Steve took his hand off the locker and turned to face Rarity. "What's wrong babe? You jealous cuz I'm not hittin' on you?" he asked, his tone cocky. "Sorry honey, but I'm just not into purple hair, even if it is rare. Brian here, on the other hand, might be willing to take you out." He used his thumb to gesture at the second boy, who was still standing to Fluttershy's right.

"You listen here you miscreant," Rarity fumed, jabbing her finger into Steve's chest, "if you don't leave right now, I will have the Perryville Police Department here in the blink of an eye to arrest you for sexual harassment! I think the word of three upstanding students will be more than enough to get you two delinquents hauled away!"

The cheerful, cocky look on Steve's face quickly dissipated, replaced with a look of sheer annoyance. "Look ya stuck up bitch, don't go makin' threats at me!" he shouted back at her. Rarity cocked an eyebrow at him.

"Threats? That wasn't a threat, that was a promise. Do you want to hear a threat? THIS is a threat: If you don't back away from my friend _right now_, I will rip off whatever pathetic excuse you have for testicles and shove them down your throat! I will then gouge your pathetic eyes out with my perfectly manicured nails while the football team uses you as its personal punching bag. If by some miracle you are still alive, I will have whatever's left of you hauled off to the juvenile ward of the state prison. I'm sure you've heard what happens to guys like you there." She paused for a moment to catch her breath, and to allow her words to sink in before continuing. "How's THAT for a threat?"

Steve stared at Rarity, his face blanched and mouth agape. It wasn't that he was actually afraid of her threats that caused his shock-anyone would know that they weren't realistic-but rather the fact that she came up with all of that in an instant. He tried to utter a comeback, but after stammering endlessly he simply settled on "Bitch" before shuffling away with Brian at his heels. Fluttershy slowly dropped to her knees, her hand over her frantically beating heart. Rarity knelt down next to her and wrapped an arm around her shoulders.

"Are you okay?" she asked, her voice filled with concern.

"Yes, I'm...fine," Fluttershy replied hesitantly, forcing a smile that didn't manage to reach her eyes.

Twilight joined the two girls, setting her armload of books on the ground. "You would think that people like them wouldn't be allowed in a school as prestigious as this," she commented, shaking her head in disapproval. Rarity looked up at her with a look that was caught somewhere between pity and disbelief.

"This is a school for the rich, first and foremost. Not everyone becomes rich by, shall we say, 'respectable means'," the fashionista explained. She proceeded to stand, assisting Fluttershy to do the same, before continuing. "While the majority of the students here are from respectable families-or, at least, respectable backgrounds-there are also a small number who are from mob families and the like. It's one of the school's worst kept secrets."

Twilight bit her lip and shook her head, more than a little frustrated at Rarity's explanation. She wanted to express her displeasure for the situation, but quickly reminded herself that Fluttershy was more important. Her overly shy friend had already begun to empty the contents of her locker without saying another word. "Hey, Fluttershy, are you sure you're okay?" Twilight asked, placing a hand on Fluttershy's shoulder.

"Yes."

"Really? Because a book that I read said that sometimes, after events like this, victims might-"

"I said I'm fine. You know Twilight, just because it's in a book doesn't mean it applies to every situation." Fluttershy shrugged Twilight's hand off of shoulder and began to walk away from her two friends, completely avoiding eye contact.

"Fluttershy, wait!" Rarity called, shooting Twilight an angry look.

"I...have to go feed the animals," Fluttershy replied, her soft voice almost inaudible due to the distance between them. She rounded the corner and disappeared from sight.

Rarity sighed and retrieved her share of the books from Twilight's pile. "I understand that facts are your specialty, but sometimes saying nothing and just being there is the best thing you can do," Rarity lectured, placing a hand on Twilight's shoulder. "Well, you did say you lacked any significant social interaction before you came here. I suppose you'll learn in time." With that she left Twilight alone in the hallway.

Fluttershy knelt down in the grass, placing a bowl of food into one of the many rabbit hutches. She came here every day after school to care for the animals that were part of the Animal Grooming and Car (AGC) program, which she was a part of. Technically the task was supposed to be broken up amongst the students in the class, but no one else in the class really cared to be bothered, and Fluttershy enjoyed taking care of the animals, so the task fell solely on her shoulders every day. For the most part, she was only responsible for the small animals used in the program-birds, rabbits, ferrets, and the like-although she did feed the horses that were used for both the polo team and the AGC program. The rabbit hutches were always her last stop, as the rabbits had always been her favorite, and she believed in saving the best for last. She reached back into the hutch and extracted a small, white rabbit, placing it on the grass in front of her. "Did you enjoy playing with your friends, Angel?" she asked, patting the rabbit on its head. The rabbit just sniffed the grass and hopped around in a circle. Fluttershy sighed. "Oh, it's just not the same."

She couldn't admit it to the rest of her friends, but for as long as she could remember she had been having dreams like the one Twilight described. In her dreams, she was a pegasus who lived in a small cottage, surrounded by animals day and night. While she was still shy in that world, she found that she was capable expressing herself better. There were some nights where the dreams seemed so real that she felt as if she actually have hooves and wings. She would wake up in excitement, only to be disappointed when she discovered that she was still human. When she was a child, the jarring realization that she wasn't actually a pony was so shocking that she would end up crying uncontrollably.

"Wouldn't it be great to live in a world like that Angel?" she asked, picking up the small rabbit and hugging him. The rabbit was her attempt to capture a part of the dream world that she loved so much, but the Angel in that world had quite a unique attitude. "It's just not the same," she sighed again, placing the rabbit back on the ground. She closed up the rabbit hutch, and made sure the door was secure. Angel sat outside of the hutch, staring at the other rabbits within. Fluttershy picked him up and wrapped him up in her uniform jacket, cuddling the bundle in her arms. School rules dictated that animals were not allowed in dorm rooms, but Fluttershy had been smuggling Angel back and forth between her room and the rabbit hutches for the past several months. She did nothing to draw attention to herself, and as a result was able to move about without question. After a few quick glances at the surrounding areas, she turned and proceeded to head back to her dorm room.

Fluttershy closed the door behind her, locking the deadbolt for extra security. She then proceeded to extract Angel from her jacket and placed him in the small cage she kept in her room. The small bunny immediately darted for his water bottle, licking furiously at the little metal ball. "I guess it got pretty hot in there," Fluttershy commented, watching the rabbit with pure amusement. She observed him as he finished indulging in his water and began hopping around the cage before finally settling on a spot to lay down. After assuring that the rabbit was indeed comfortable, Fluttershy moved to her dresser and extracted a yellow t-shirt with blutterflies on the front. She stripped off her school blouse, pausing to look at her back in the full-sized mirror against her wall. Long, pale scars ran diagonally across her back. They were more prominent in some spots than others, a sign of where her abusers aim usually struck. Tears began to well in her eyes as the memories flooded back to her.

She was thrown across his broad lap, her shirt stripped from her body. If he heard her screams, he made no motion to indicate it. She tried to wrestle free, but he was too strong, his one hand being more than enough to keep her small body pinned. The sound of a belt being removed from its loops was followed by that of cracking leather. Pain seared across her back, and she began screaming, the volume increasing each time the hard leather made contact with her bare skin. _CRACK! _"You will bleed this evil out!" the man's voice hollered. _CRACK! _"We will not have your witchery here!" _CRACK! CRACK! CRACK!_

The memory faded, but the cracking of the belt still rang in her head, a sound that would haunt her to her dying days. She brushed away the tears flowing down her cheeks. _"You have good life now. You have friends, and people who care about you. He can't reach you here," _She silently reminded herself as she slipped her t-shirt over her head, covering the painful reminders of that past life. A knock at the door brought her completely back to reality. Hastily, she grabbed a spare sheet from her hamper and tossed it over Angel's cage, in case the visitor was a school official. "C-coming," she gently called, her heart still beating faster than normal. As she reached the door, she peered through the small peep hole. Rarity's face filled her field of vision, distorted by the convex shape of the lens. With a sigh of relief, she unlocked the door and flung it open.

"Hello Rarity. I'm surprised to see you here."

Rarity smiled and grabbed Fluttershy by the shoulders, pulling her into a tight embrace. "I went home with the chauffer, but I just couldn't stop worrying about you, dear. I had him bring me back here."

Fluttershy returned the embrace, resting her head on her friend's shoulder. "Thank you. I really am fine, but I appreciate your concern."

The two broke from their embrace, and Fluttershy could tell that Rarity was inspecting her. There was clearly a sour look on her face. "If you're fine, then why have you been crying?"

"What do you mean? I wasn-"

"Fluttershy, don't lie to me. You have such fair skin, so it's obvious if you've been crying, even just a little. So tell me why."

Fluttershy shifted nervously, doing everything in her power to avoid eye contact with Rarity. "It didn't have anything to do with what happened today. It was something from my past. I'd really prefer not to talk about it."

Rarity sighed and took Fluttershy's hand, giving it a reassuring squeeze. "I really wish you'd open up to me a little more. I'm your best friend, after all, but I won't force you to tell me more than you're comfortable with."

With a smile, Fluttershy brought her head around so that she was looking directly at her best friend. "Thanks Rarity. That means a lot."

"Of course, dear. Now come on, I'm taking you to the spa. It's Friday night, so we have to live it up a little! Besides, there's nothing like a good massage to ease away the stress of a bad day."

Fluttershy hesitated for a moment and then said, "I'd um...prefer a nice facial instead. I don't really like massages."

"You always turn down the massage. Come to think of it, you turn down anything that really requires you to expose your upper body. Are you sure there's not something you haven't told me?" Rarity replied, a suspicious stare plastered on her face.

"I...guess I'm just overly modest," Fluttershy offered, hiding the lie behind a smile.

Rarity threw her arms up. "Well, who am I to argue with your morals? We'll get you taken care of, and then perhaps we'll have a nice dinner. Just a good old girl's night on the town. We haven't done that in AGES."

A pang of guilt shot through Fluttershy's stomach, but she just couldn't bring herself to tell Rarity the truth, at least not yet. "Yes, that does sound lovely. I just need to finish changing," Fluttershy said, indicating the fact that she was still wearing her uniform skirt. She invited Rarity into her room while she stripped off her skirt and retrieved a pair of blue jeans from her dresser. She slipped them on and checked her appearance in the mirror. Pleased with what she saw, she slipped her sneakers on and then turned back to her friend. "Okay, I'm ready."

"Well then, right this way, my lady," Rarity replied with a chuckle, linking her arm with Fluttershy's and leading her out the door.

Twilight was hard at work on her studying, pouring over pages of complicated physics formulae. She had been going at it for three straight hours, stopping only to take a quick call from Rarity to confirm that everything was okay with Fluttershy. Now she was stuck, scratching her head over one particular formula that just didn't seem to make sense. The book's explanation was lacking at best, simply explaining what the individual letters meant, but offering nothing in reference to the formula's application. She grabbed a handful of hair in each hand and groaned loudly, pushing herself away from the desk. Her eyes flew to her own personal collection of books, scanning the spines for anything that might prove helpful. They stopped on _The Student's Guide to Applied Physics: Formulas, Methods, and Applications_. Excited to possibly find a solution to her conundrum, Twilight shot up from her chair and approached the bookshelf, her arm extending towards the desired book. The book shot out from its location on the shelf, smacking against her hand and landing on the floor with a dull thud. She stood frozen in place, her mind trying to grasp what just happened.

"What the hell was that?" a familiar voice called from her doorway. Twilight turned to see that her door was partially opened, and that Rainbow Dash's face was filling part of that gap.

"R-Rainbow Dash...don't you know how to knock?"

"If you don't want people coming in, you should lock the door," Dash replied, opening the door up and stepping into the room. She closed the door behind her.

Normally, Twilight would have lectured her friend on the basics of common courtesy, as well as their necessity in a modern, polite society; however, this was not a normal night. Her gaze fell back to the book that was lying at her feet. She nudged it with her toe with no effect. "How do I even begin to explain this?" she muttered, looking to Dash as if she expected an answer.

"Maybe it was a practical joke?" Dash suggested, turning to examine the bookshelf. She pulled out a few of the books surrounding the space where the physics text had been and then examined the area behind them. Sliding them back into place, she turned to face Twilight. "I don't see anything back there that could have caused that."

Twilight knelt down and picked up the text from the floor, holding it at arm's length and examining it. By all appearances it was just a normal book, with nothing to indicate that anyone had tampered with it. With a sigh, she walked over to her desk and sat the book down. "I would just chalk it up to a trick of the mind due to exhaustion, but you saw it too," she said, turning to look at Rainbow Dash. "Why did you come here, anyway?"

Dash's eyes darted from the book to Twilight and back again several times before she seemed to process the question. "Oh, yeah, I came to give you an update on Pinkie. Her fever broke, and she seems to be back to normal-well, Pinkie Pie normal. She wasn't awake much, but when she was she didn't say anything about a pony world. Now, about that book..."

With an aggravated sigh, Twilight picked up the book again and walked over to the bookshelf, replacing the tome. She suddenly found herself devoid of any desire to continue studying. "You know, I really don't even want to think about it. Whatever happened, I can't explain it."

"That doesn't sound like you. Normally you aren't content until you have an answer," Dash replied, her face a mixture of confusion and concern. In response, Twilight pointed to one of the spiral notebooks that lay open on her desk, showing two pages completely full with writing.

"I have to have all of that done by the end of the weekend, and that doesn't even begin to cover my own personal studies that I hope to pursue during that time. I'll admit, I'm both intrigued and scared by what we saw this evening, but I really don't have the time to question it. Maybe it really was just a shared hallucination. I'm tired from studying, and I'm sure you're tired from caring for Pinkie Pie."

The look on Dash's face indicated that she wasn't at all convinced with Twilight's explanation, but she decided to drop the subject. Twilight could be stubborn when she wanted to be, and there was little point in arguing with her when she was. "Well, if you're that busy, then I won't hold you up. I just wanted to let you know that Pinkie's okay," Dash replied, reaching for the doorknob. She paused as Twilight called out to her.

"Hey Dash...thanks for taking care of Pinkie Pie. She might be weird, but she's still a good friend," Twilight said, a small smile spreading across her face.

"No problem. Everyone knows they can always count on Dash!" Rainbow Dash puffed out her chest and jabbed her thumb at herself. She let out a small laugh and opened the dorm door, stepping outside. "Well, g'night Twilight!"

Twilight waved back in response. "Good night, Rainbow Dash."

Out in the hallway, Rainbow Dash pulled the door shut behind her and muttered, "I'll bet she spends the rest of the night studying that book."

**After-chapter thoughts: **I had way too much fun writing that Rarity rage scene. If I had any drawing ability whatsoever I would draw that scene in a heartbeat, just for my own amusement. "A Dog and Pony Show" is one of my favorite FiM episodes, so when the idea for that scene came to me, I just ran with it. Also, if you think my description of Steve's appearance and actions was over dramatized or overly harsh, then I really envy you. I went to high school with so many guys who looked and acted just like that, and I hated every moment of it.

Just to provide a heads up: chapter 5 may be a bit longer in coming, as I will be going to Florida for a week to celebrate my graduation from graduate school. I plan to take my laptop with me, but I really don't know how much writing I'll actually be able to get done. Thanks for continuing to read my work! I know this isn't the best story every (it most certainly isn't the best thing I've ever written), but I have fun writing it all the same, and I hope you have fun reading it! As always, you will be able to find a more in-depth discussion of the chapter on my blog, if it interests you.


	5. The Therapy

**Chapter 5: The Therapy**

**Opening comments:** This chapter was started on my flight back from Florida. It's only my second time flying (the first time being the trip to Florida, obviously), and I realized that I may not have the opportunity to write while flying for quite some time after this. I always like finding new atmospheres to write in. For anyone who cares, the trip was very fun.

My thanks to Beige Monkfish for pre-reading this chapter!

The remainder of the weekend passed without incident. True to her claims, Twilight spent the good majority of her time holed up in her room, plugging away at her homework and her own personal studies. She never managed to completely forget about the incident with her book, but she did manage to push the issue to the back of her mind. Now it was Monday morning, and she stood in the middle of her group of friends, the book clutched tightly in her hands as she recounted the details of the incident, Rainbow Dash nodding beside her the entire time. The shocked looks on her friends' faces told her all too well that they found the story completely unbelievable. An eerie silence fell over the usual chatty group as Twilight finished her story. Finally, after what seemed like an eternity, Pinkie Pie spoke up.

"Um, Twilight, I think all that studying has finally fried your brain. I think you need to unwind a bit." Her eyes brightened as she made her statement. "You know what's good for unwinding? A party! We should have a 'Help Twilight Unwind' party! Ooo, and I'm feeling better now! It could be a 'Help Twilight Unwind and Pinkie Pie is Feeling Better' party!" At this point she was practically jumping up and down with excitement, and Twilight wondered if her friend even remembered the story about the book. Leaving Pinkie to her own jubilation, Twilight turned back to the rest of the group.

"What do you guys make of this?"

Rarity was the first to speak up. "Honestly Twilight, while I might not say this that often, I think that Pinkie Pie is right. All you ever do is work in the library and study. You need to get out and stretch your legs more." She turned to look at Rainbow Dash. "Dash had spent the entire day looking after Pinkie. She was probably exhausted, so it's no great leap to assume that she could have shared your hallucination."

Twilight wanted to protest the shared hallucination theory. After thinking it over, it just didn't seem logical that she and Rainbow Dash would see the same false vision at the same time; however, since she had been the one to originally propose the idea she decided it would be best to bite her tongue. More importantly, it seemed that whatever was affecting Pinkie Pie's mind had completely disappeared along with her cold. She hadn't made one single mention of ponies or other worlds, and she certainly wasn't moping around like she had been. The irony that her own hallucination had occurred on the same day that Pinkie Pie's fever broke wasn't lost on Twilight, and she started wondering if she was affected with the same thing. Her deliberations were cut short by the sharp ring of the warning bell.

The sextet made their way to their homeroom without a single word spoken amongst them. Everyone's mood seemed to be down after the recent events-well, everyone except Pinkie Pie, who was happily half-walking, half-skipping in front of the group. She stopped briefly to open the classroom door, and then proceeded to skip to her seat. Behind her, the rest of the group shuffled in, making their way to their seats with much less enthusiasm. Twilight knelt down and slid her books into the rack under her seat and then turned to look at Pinkie, seated at her desk on the other side of the room. As usual, her books were tossed helter-skelter on the desk in front of her, but for once Twilight didn't care about that. What she was really interested in was the glazed look in Pinkie's eyes. Her overly-perky friend was staring off into space, lazily kicking her feet under her desk, a half-smile spread on her face. It was extremely unsettling, and Twilight just couldn't let it go.

She stood up and approached Pinkie's desk, waving her hand in front of those glazed, pink eyes, while saying, "Hey, Pinkie, are you feeling okay?" When Pinkie didn't reply, Twilight gave her shoulder a gentle shake and repeated her question. Pinkie Pie shook her head and turned to look at Twilight.

"Huh? Twilight? Oh, sorry, I didn't hear you from the other side of the yellow door."

Twilight cocked an eyebrow and began to ask, "What door?" but was cut off by a much louder voice calling out, "You've seen the yellow door?"

Everyone in the room turned to stare at Fluttershy, standing in the middle of the room, her eyes fixated solely on Pinkie Pie. Twilight had never heard her introverted friend yell out like that, and probably would have never identified the voice if she wasn't staring straight at its source. Pinkie Pie seemed to be equally unsettled as she slowly replied, "Y-yeah, but what's so special about a door?"

Twilight was looking back and forth between the two of them, her face twisted in confusion as she tried to make sense of the conversation. Finally her patience gave out and she asked, "Would either of you mind explaining what door you're talking about? The only door we came through was the classroom door, and that certainly isn't yellow."

Fluttershy looked as though she was about to reply, but the realization that everyone's attention was fixated upon her finally sank in. She bowed her head and mumbled, "Oh um, sorry for the interruption," before shuffling to her seat and burying her face in her arms. With that avenue decidedly closed, Twilight turned back to Pinkie Pie for an answer.

"You mean you can't see the yellow door?" Pinkie Pie asked, tilting her head and giving Twilight a puzzled look.

"_What _door, Pinkie?" Twilight was becoming frustrated, and it was starting to show in her voice.

"The pony door, of course," Pinkie replied, without a trace of humor or amusement on her face.

"Wha-ponies? Again?" Twilight threw her hands up in the air and groaned loudly. "You know what? I don't care anymore!"

_That was a lie_, she told herself as she stormed back to her seat. The truth was that she was more curious now than ever. What could be so important about some unseen door that would make Fluttershy burst out like that? Furthermore, the look that Pinkie Pie had given her made her feel as though she were the odd one out in this case, even though it seemed like only two people knew of this supposed door. _It's all too much_, she thought to herself as she took her seat. While she could have easily continued pressing Pinkie for more information, her mounting frustration would have inevitably taken its toll, and may have caused her to say something that would be damaging to their friendship. Whatever was happening, it certainly wasn't worth that price. Nothing was.

The door at the front of the classroom opened and Ms. Cherri shuffled in, looking as though she'd rather be anywhere but in the classroom. Rumor had it that she spent her weekends going on blind dates, trying to find the right man. If the rumors were true, then her appearance could only suggest another failed blind date, and thus another miserable weekend. That she was in misery, though, there was no question; her voice lacked its usual cheery nature as she methodically went down the role sheet, calling each name in order. When she was done she muttered, "The clubs can handle their own announcements. I have a headache," and shuffled out of the room the same way she came.

"At least I'm not the only one in a bad mood," Twilight commented to herself, opening up a thick tome on Estrios' history to kill the time that would normally have been occupied by club announcements. The book was one in a series, and focused on the Sundai and Arau continents to the East. It had always been one of her favorites, as evidenced by the worn pages and the slowly failing binding. Despite her love for the book, though, she found it impossible to concentrate. She closed the book with a sigh, giving in to the fact that this was not going to be a good day.

After what seemed like an eternity, their math teacher, Mr. Garon, finally made his way through the classroom door. He was a short, chubby man with a balding head. Twilight had never been able to gauge his personality; after all, the only time he talked was to lecture about math. He was the only one of her teachers who did not provide some insight into their personal life.

Like every day, Mr. Garon sat his books and laptop bag on the podium in the front of the class, picked up a piece of chalk, and proceeded to write on the blackboard. Today, however, he did not write a long series of equations, but rather the words "Pop Quiz", which elicited a simultaneous groan from the entire class, Twilight included. _And this day just keeps getting better_ she thought to herself as she extracted a piece of loose leaf from her binder.

The rest of the day passed just as it had started: awkward and slow. The usually chatty group of friends barely said two words to each other over the entire course of it, and they were all quick to go their separate ways when the final bell rang. Twilight was the last of the group to leave school that day, having chosen to stay behind and help one of her teachers with an editing job he had taken. The book was on the mating rituals of northern hemisphere geese-a book that could easily be described as the epitome of boring. Even the teacher seemed to have trouble keeping an interest in the material, but not Twilight. She held on to every word she read, finding it immensely interesting-but then again, Twilight Sparkle found _everything _interesting. By the time she had finished providing her assistance, it was past five p.m., and the sun was low in the western sky. Twilight scurried down the pathway towards the library, eager to get to her job of filing away returned books. It wasn't that she particularly enjoyed putting the books away-she often found herself wanting to read them instead of put them back-but rather that she wanted something else to keep her mind occupied. If her mind sat idle for too long the morning's events would keep playing over in her head until they drove her mad.

She burst through the doors of the library, sending a stream of fading daylight into the usually dim building. The librarian on duty looked up from her computerized solitaire game and stared at Twilight, a disapproving look on her face. "So you finally decided to show up, did you?" She was a short, old lady, with sagging features that reminded Twilight of an old bulldog. The old woman had never seemed fond of Twilight, and Twilight couldn't say she felt any different towards the old lady. She was always nitpicking at everyone's work, and her voice reminded Twilight of a croaking frog.

Despite her feelings, though, Twilight had been raised to respect her elders, and so she simply smiled and responded, "Sorry Ms. Meredith. One of my teachers asked me to help him with something after school." She looked around for the return cart, but didn't see it next to the front desk where it usually sat. Confused, she turned back to Ms. Meredith. "Where are today's returns? I need to get them put away."

"I instructed one of the other staff members to put them away. We don't have time to wait on you, Ms. Talon, and you'd best remember that. I will be reporting your tardiness to the head librarian as well as the headmaster. See that you keep your priorities in line next time." With that Ms. Meredith went back to her solitaire as though nothing had happened.

Twilight wanted to yell at the old lady, but she found that she lacked the energy. For whatever reason, Ms. Meredith had decided from day one that she didn't like Twilight, and she always went out of her way to make things as hard as possible for the young scholar. On top of that, she was the only person besides Ms. Cherri to insist on calling Twilight by her real name. Twilight hated that name, and often questioned her parents on why they chose to name her 'Talon' of all things. "It's exotic! It's different! It will set you apart from the crowd!" they had exclaimed, as though naming her after a bird's claw were the greatest thing she could ever ask for. She much preferred the nickname her friends had given her, and was ecstatic when it seemed to catch on among the other students. Even Queen Celestia seemed to have taken to the nickname, using it in the occasional letters that she would send to Twilight. Those letters were one of Twilight's few joys in life, and she looked forward to the times when she would receive one. Her ties to Queen Celestia were her greatest secret, shared only with her friends, and that was only due to an accident where she had been careless with one of her letters.

Twilight began making her way through the rows of tall bookshelves. As she looked up at the books above her, she felt a twang of guilt for not being there to do her job. It felt as though the books were judging her and blaming her, although she knew that was impossible. There was a study area packed with tables about halfway through the library, separating the sections of shelves from each other. At a lone table sat a boy and a girl, a couple by the looks of it. The boy was holding a book entitled, _Human Anatomy and You_, and was pointing his finger at the book and saying, "How about I put this in this, eh?" while the girl sat there blushing. Twilight shot them a dirty look and continued on her way.

_You know you can borrow the book and take it back to your dorm room, right? _She kept the thought to herself, though, and made her way through the second leg of bookshelves until she reached the winding staircase that lead to her room. She took the stairs two at a time, reaching the top in about half a minute, where she proceeded to extract her key and unlock the door to her room. Inside, she flipped on the light, tossed her backpack into a corner, and flopped on to her bed. For once she only had a small amount of homework, and as far as she was concerned it could wait. A small, rarely used television sat on a stand at the foot of her bed. After a few moments of fumbling around in her nightstand drawer, she finally extracted the remote and flipped on the television. The screen blinked to life, and the speakers blared out a narrators voice, commenting on the lifestyle of a nomadic tribe.

_This again? I haven't watched TV in weeks, and yet I immediately catch a re-run _Twilight thought to herself as she began to slowly flip through the channels. She caught glimpses of several sitcoms, none of which interested her, as well as soap operas and telethons. The more she changed the channel, the more she found herself remembering why she barely bothered with television. She was ready to admit defeat when an image of two soldiers clashing swords flashed across the screen. Intrigued, she observed the duel, a nostalgic wave washing over her. When the soldiers addressed each other by name, her eyes grew wide. This was an adaptation of the only fantasy series she had ever found worth reading! She considered most fantasy to be tripe intended for escapists, but this particular series was intriguing. It pulled on plenty of historical fact within the fantasy, and it strayed from conventional and predictable means. Twilight had found herself enthralled with the books, and now found herself drawn into the television adaption.

It seemed like only moments passed before the credits began to roll over the screen, but in fact an hour has passed since she began watching her show. After a preview for the next episode played, Twilight made sure to note the time and channel that the show had played on. She then began perusing the channels yet again, looking for something else worth her time. She stopped again five channels later on PNN, the Perryville News Network, where an image of a smoking building stood as the focal point. A woman's voice was speaking over the image.

"This footage is live from the Sun Financial Firm, a loan company owned by Queen Celestia's family since before their rise to royalty. Approximately an hour ago, an employee was cleaning up for the day when he discovered a small box outside of the building's main doors. Witnesses say that the man picked up the box, only to have it explode in his hand seconds later, taking part of the buildings eastern wall with it," the woman explained, pausing to let the information sink in. After a few seconds she continued, "While a perpetrator has not been identified, the Queen Celestia's Royal Guard have already begun pointing their fingers at 'Shame On The Night', a group calling for Queen Celestia to relinquish her claim to the throne. The Guard points to recent threats made by the group, and claims that it believes this to be a warning that those threats are true. The Royal Guard is an elite group of soldiers typically stationed as protectors for Queen Celestia and the royal palace; however, they have now been dispatched to investigate this incident. That fact alone should speak volumes about this situation. Coming to you live from Belmont Square, this is Trixie Knox for PNN."

Twilight turned off the television, completely stunned from what she had just listened to. Her country had been peaceful for close to a century; the idea of war and terrorist attacks long gone from the minds of its people. Sure there were always people ready to protest some new law or tax, but even the worst protests only resulted in some minor rioting that was quickly put down. Actions like this were something she never thought to see in her lifetime, yet here they were. She could only imagine how Queen Celestia must feel. While Celestia had no personal hand in the operation of the financial firm, it was still a family business, and would affect somebody within her bloodline. A sinking feeling in her stomach told Twilight that the situation would get a lot worse before it ever saw any conclusion. With only one thought in mind, Twilight rose from her bed and retrieved a piece of paper and a pen. She took a seat at her desk and began to write her letter.

Several days had passed since the news of the attack. New details were few and far between, but that didn't stop Perryville Academy's hallways from turning into a hub for gossip and conspiracy theories. It made Twilight sick to her stomach to hear some of the things the students were suggesting, and to make matters worse the situation with her friends didn't seem to be getting any better. They all still seemed to be awkward around each other after the dual combo of a floating book and some unforeseen door. None of them would admit that there was any tension, of course, but it could be felt in the air amongst them when they converse. Everything they said sounded stiff, as if their conversations were some practiced courtesy as opposed to friends sharing stories. The situation irritated Twilight to no end, and yet she couldn't bring herself to blame her friends for feeling awkward. Pinkie's original delusions had been explained away by her cold, but there was no logical explanation for the floating book that both Twilight and Dash had witnessed, or for the door that only Pinkie and Fluttershy seemed to see. It didn't help that the latter two weren't interested in discussing this "door", either. With no answers to soothe their nerves, the friends could only continue on the best they could, unaware of the next oddity that would come to their attention on Friday morning.

The girls were standing at their usual locker meeting spot, the tension thicker than ever since no one dared tackle the obvious elephants among them. Fluttershy was doing her best to ease the tension by telling them about how one of the rabbits was pregnant, and how her teacher was going to let her be there when the litter was born, but no one else seemed interested in the story. After a few moments, she simply gave up and stopped talking, slinking back against the lockers. Twilight sighed at the sight. It was a miracle when Fluttershy talked that much, and it seemed like such a waste to have it fall on deaf ears. She was sure none of her friends meant to be rude, but she also couldn't deny that their minds were pre-occupied. To Twilight's right stood Rainbow Dash, who was looking around nervously as though she was trying to avoid someone. Twilight gave her a quizzical look.

"Is everything alright Dash?" she asked.

Dash flashed a shaky smile and replied, "Of course it is, why wouldn't it be? Does it look like something's wrong?"

Twilight wanted to tell her friend that this was indeed the case, but the words didn't have the chance to leave her lips. While Dash had been looking at Twilight, a tall, blonde haired girl had slunk up behind the rainbow-haired athlete, and was now clasping her by the shoulder. Dash turned to meet her gaze, trying and failing to place a convincing smile on her face. "H-hey Ashley, how's it going?" she stammered out.

The newcomer, who Twilight now knew was named Ashley, did not look amused. She held up a small, clear container with a white lid and pressed it into Rainbow Dash's hand. "Listen, I don't know what you used, but I know you used something. Meet me at lunch time; we're going to the nurse's office and you're going to fill this," she paused to indicate the container. "The school nurse will run her tests on this, and once I prove you're using, you'll be out of the track team and out of this school for good." She jabbed her finger into Dash's chest twice as she uttered 'for good', as if to drive the words in deeper. With her message delivered, she turned and walked swiftly away. By now, the rest of the sextet had become interested in the situation, and for once the tension seemed to lift.

"What horrid manners! Was that oaf of a girl not taught how to conduct herself among polite society?" Rarity commented as she stared at the retreating girl's back. To their surprise, Dash spoke up in defense.

"She actually has a reason to be so suspicious," Dash commented. When she saw the concerned looks on her friends' faces, she quickly added, "I'm not using, though, trust me! I would never risk my scholarship!" She sighed and looked around at them all. "Yesterday I beat my top speed at the one hundred meter dash by two seconds."

Her friends faces seemed to brighten as smiles spread across them. They moved to congratulate Dash, but she pulled away from them. "You don't get it, do you? That's physically impossible! I worked my butt off to beat the school's record. There's no way that I could turn around and beat my own record in the course of one afternoon! I swear, I'm not using performance enhancers, but I can't blame Ashley for being suspicious."

Twilight knew that Dash's claims were true-such a feat was completely impossible. She thought about speaking up and saying as much, but decided against it. The situation was bad enough without her potentially restoring the tension that had been hanging between the friends. She put her scientific facts aside and instead asked, "Who is this Ashley girl, anyway?"

"She's the captain of the track team...and the person whose record I beat," Dash explained.

The true weight of the situation seemed to sink into the group with that explanation. They all moved to embrace Dash, creating an awkward group hug that finally brought some feeling of normalcy back to the group. Pinkie Pie spoke up from her spot behind Dash. "Don't worry Dashie! All you have to do is take a tinkle in the cup and everything will be okie dokie loki!" It was an obvious statement, but for some reason it made them all laugh. Twilight had to admit that it felt good to laugh with her friends again. Unfortunately, the morning bell rang seconds later, forcing their group to break up and collect their belongings.

As she watched her friends move towards the classroom, Twilight couldn't help but feel a little envious of Dash. When she had experienced her own strange phenomenon her friends were skeptical and ready to call her sanity into question; however, they were quick to comfort Dash. _Then again, there are more logical explanations for Dash's situation. Ashley could have simply meddled with the stop watch, _Twilight admitted to herself. _On the other hand, maybe there really is some scientific explanation for this_. She sighed with the realization that she would end up spending a lot of time studying that idea to satiate her own curiosity. Books in hand, she too made her way to the classroom.

Lunchtime came, and for the first time in a week the six girls found themselves gathered around a collection of desks to eat together. Their conversation was lighthearted, with no traces of the former tension to be found. Whether the awkwardness was truly gone or the group was just putting on a show for Dash's sake, Twilight couldn't say, but she couldn't deny that the return to normalcy felt good.

Today, her lunch consisted of spaghetti and meatballs from the cafeteria. While she couldn't claim it to be the greatest rendition of the dish that she'd ever tasted, it was still quite delicious. She had saved her meatballs for last, a personal tradition since childhood, and was now lifting the first to her mouth when the school's PA system crackled into life.

"Good afternoon, students and faculty," the principal's voice announced. He was a gruff old man, with a gravelly voice that was unmistakable. The classroom conversations quickly died down so that the students could hear the announcement that was worth disrupting lunch over. "I have just been informed that Goldenrod Hall has been destroyed, presumably by the terrorist group that has recently been in the news. If you all recall, they had allegedly attacked an establishment earlier this week, as well. While this will not be interrupting your classes, I felt that you all had the right to know, as Goldenrod was one of our country's most valued landmarks. You may now return to your meals."

As the PA system died down, the classroom erupted back into a torrent of discussion about the events. Outrage, sadness, and indifference all intermingled to create a buzz that was almost intolerable. Twilight placed her meatball back in its container, her appetite suddenly gone. Goldenrod Hall had been the stronghold from which Queen Celestia's ancestors had planned their movements during their rebellion a century ago. The monarch at the time had gone mad, and began raising taxes to extreme highs, putting those who couldn't pay on trial and, usually, to death. Insane measures by an insane man, it was often said. Celestia's family had begun organizing a rebellion, amassing citizens and arms at Goldenrod. Despite the odds against them-a ragtag group of rebels versus a trained military-they had succeeded. Since then, Goldenrod had stood as a beacon of hope for all of Celestia's faithful. Its loss would surely be a blow to the nation's morale. Twilight's stomach began to churn. How would Queen Celestia take this news?

Applejack turned to Twilight and in a low voice asked, "Hey sugar, you okay? I know you're close with the queen, so I imagine this has ter be a bit shockin' to ya."

Twilight tried to feign a smile, but it died before it could even fully form on her lips. She slumped in her seat and confessed, "I'm worried for Queen Celestia. The claims this group is making are damaging enough. If these attacks continue, the public is going to get uneasy. I've already heard some of the students making comments like 'If she can't protect her own family's property, how can she protect our country?' It might be an absurd claim, but if enough people fall into that mindset it could be disastrous. Now they've gone after a national monument, which just adds more fuel to that argument." She felt the uneasiness in her stomach growing along with her stress. Her lunch was threatening to come up. "I really don't feel good."

"Maybe you should just take the rest of the day for yourself," Dash suggested. "I could tell you not to worry, but I know that won't do any good. If you're going to worry anyway, you might as well do it where you can be comfortable-and not risk failing assignments. A make-up penalty is better than a full on assignment fail."

"I would really prefer-" Twilight began, but then fell silent as she felt the discomfort in her stomach grow again. She had only ever missed two other days of school, a Thursday and Friday where she had contracted a bad case of influenza. Technically this would just be an early exit due to sickness, and would not count against her attendance record. Plus, if she were to lose her lunch she would prefer to not do so around her classmates. With slow, resigned movements she rose from her desk and grabbed her books, bidding farewell to her friends. Rarity promised to inform the teachers of Twilight's ill health. Twilight thanked her, and then made her way out of the classroom.

She stopped in the hallway to retrieve her backpack, and then followed the path back to the library. The uneasiness in her stomach continued to increase, and with it the pace at which she walked. By the time she walked through the library doors she was sprinting, clasping her hand over her mouth as a pre-caution. Up the winding staircase she went and into her room, just in time to make it to the bathroom and lose her spaghetti lunch in the toilet. Her body forced her through that torture two more times over the next ten minutes, until her stomach had nothing left to relinquish.

Afterwards, she found that the combination of stress and a sour stomach had exhausted her strength. She rinsed her mouth with mouthwash, brushed her teeth, and walked back into the main room, collapsing on her bed. Within moments she was asleep.

A knock at the door woke her suddenly. She wasn't sure what time it was, although the dim light streaming through her window suggested that it was well into the evening. Twilight wiped the sleep from her eyes as she walked towards the door. She threw it open to find a blonde girl with odd eyes standing on the other side, an envelope clutched in her hand. "Delivery service!" the girl happily announced, holding out the envelope.

Twilight stared at the girl for a moment. "Aren't you responsible for handing out the school newspaper?" she asked.

The girl smiled and replied, "Yep, but I also deliver campus mail as a side job. I was told to rush this to you. Don't worry, I didn't look at it; they instructed me not to."

Wondering what could be so important, Twilight thanked the girl and took the envelope, closing the door as the girl proceeded back down the steps. The back of the envelope was sealed with a stamp that looked like a sun. Realization began to sink in, and Twilight quickly tore the envelope open and extracted the letter from within, reading it over quickly. As she reached the bottom, her breath caught in her throat, and she began to read it again, more slowly.

My Dearest Twilight Sparkle,

Thank you for your concern in regards to my family's establishment. None of my family members were injured in the attack, but unfortunately the young man who picked up the package did not survive. While we grieve for his loss, there are more pressing matters at hand. As you have probably heard, Goldenrod Hall was destroyed today. We fully suspect that Shame On The Night is to blame for both incidents; however, you have probably already deduced this yourself. You are such a bright girl after all. I fear this is only the beginning, though. As a pre-emptive measure, I am sending someone from my personal staff to Perryville Academy to act as a body guard for you. He is a year younger than you, but he is very bright, and I have managed to get him placed into your class. It seems that these people are targeting things that are tied to me personally. If they discover your connection to me, I fear that they may come after you as well. Perryville Academy is a safe place, but I would feel better knowing that you have someone guarding your personally.

Stay strong during these turbulent times. I fear that things will get much worse before this is over.

Warmest regards,

Queen Celestia

**Closing comments: **Chapter 5 is finally done! I think this is the longest chapter yet! I don't have a whole lot to say here, so I'll just say that I hope you enjoy it, and that I hope you are looking forward to seeing where this leads! I'd be surprised if no one figured out which character Twilight's bodyguard is going to correspond to. It should be noted that I am a huge fan of science fiction and fantasy novels, so no offense to my fellow fantasy fans.


	6. The River Dragon Has Come

**Chapter 6: The River Dragon Has Come**

**Opening comments: **So here's chapter 6. It took me a while to get started on it since I had preparations to make for Otakon, and I had catching up to do at both of my jobs post-Otakon. I hope you all enjoy this chapter. A big thank you goes out to all of my pre-readers for providing me with plenty of ideas and suggestions! I really appreciate all of the time you guys have taken to help me out!

Rarity leaned forward and grabbed the letter from the coffee table, reading it slowly, taking in every word. When she was done, she sat it back down, daintily lifted her tea cup, and took a sip before commenting. "Well, I think it's for the best. There must be some substance to the queen's worrying if she's going so far as to lend you one of her guards. Even if nothing happens, at least you'll have yourself a nice gentleman to keep you company." Across the table, Twilight began to blush.

"That's the problem. I don't spend much time around guys outside of the academic setting. I'm...not very comfortable with the idea." Twilight wrung her hands nervously, shifting her gaze between her friends. Pinkie Pie and Rainbow Dash occupied the chairs at either end of the coffee table, Rarity the chair across from her, and Applejack shared the couch that Twilight was sitting on. _She could have at least waited to have this conversation in privacy _Twilight thought to herself, thoroughly embarrassed to have her short-comings brought up. 

"And this is the solution," Rarity replied, tapping the letter with a slender finger. "You have to get used to being around guys in a private setting at some point. It's not like this would be the first time you've had to adjust to a new situation. Need I remind you that the very idea of _friends _frightened you when you first came here?"

Twilight shifted uncomfortably in her seat. It was true that prior to her attendance at Perryville Academy she hadn't involved herself with other people her age. She either spent her time with her teachers and tutors, or holed up in her room studying and researching. When she had first arrived at the elite school she had been completely introverted, associating with her fellow students only when her assignments deemed it necessary. Now, though, she had a group of great friends who she could open up to whenever she needed. _If I can clear that hurdle then I suppose I can clear this one, too, _she assured herself. She leaned forward and retrieved her own teacup from the coffee table, sipping at the hot liquid within before returning it to its saucer. She slumped back into the couch with a sigh of defeat. "I guess I don't have much of a choice. Even if I told Queen Celestia 'no', I doubt she would listen; after all, who am I to give orders to a queen?" To her right, Pinkie Pie began to clap her hands and bounce in her seat.

"Oh, we have to have a welcoming party! Something big and exciting, with balloons, and music! Oooo, and we'll need a cake, too! A big one!" She continued rambling on with idea after idea in true Pinkie Pie fashion. Once she set her mind to planning a party, there was no stopping her. No one even dared ask where she got all the money to fund all of these parties from, either. Rainbow Dash seemed to be plotting her own agenda at the other end of the table.

"He's a guard trained in the royal palace, huh? That means his training must have been intense. I'll definitely need to race him to make sure he's not a threat." She chuckled at the thought, grabbing her teacup and swallowing the contents in one gulp, burning her tongue in the process. The rest of the girls laughed as she stuck her tongue out and fanned it with her hands. As the laughter died down, Applejack began to speak.

"Ah s'pose ah could make 'im one o' my apple pies. Ain't nothin' says 'welcome' like a good bit o' home cookin'." She nodded to herself, as if to reaffirm the notion in her mind.

"Yes, yes, I'm sure you'll all do a wonderful job of making him feel welcomed," Rarity commented as she tented her fingers and turned her gaze to Rainbow Dash. "Not to be rude, but there was a more pressing matter that I hoped to address before Twilight dropped this on us." She paused before continuing. "Rainbow Dash, whatever happened with that drug test?"

Dash stopped fanning her tongue and made eye contact with Rarity. "Ah'm still 'ere, arn I?" she replied, not bothering to retract her tongue. After another moment, she finally pulled it back into her mouth and continued, "The results came out clean, like I knew they would. Ashley doesn't seem to be convinced, but for now the situation has blown over. Still...I can't explain the sudden increase in my running time."

"Well, my fear was that Ashley had stopped keeping time prematurely, and perhaps even slipped you something to set you up," Twilight offered. Dash shook her head in response.

"I thought the same thing, so I took my own stop watch and timed myself. I came out with the same results. Besides, Ashley may be the jealous type, and she's notorious for holding a grudge, but I've never heard of her playing dirty before. Slipping someone 'roids doesn't seem like it would be her M.O. I don't know what's going on here, but it's genuine-of that much I'm sure."

The room went quiet as everyone mulled over what seemed to be Dash's acceptance of the situation. _I might not be able to do much, but I can at least do some research to see if there's any medical explanation for Dash's situation, _Twilight told herself. She had intended to do just that the night before, but when the letter arrived her mind had become solely focused on that. As she started slipping deeper into her own thoughts a glaring oversight suddenly jumped into her mind. She snapped her head up to look at Rarity and asked, "Hey, where's Fluttershy?"

Rarity gave her a puzzled look and replied, "I thought I told you. She went to spend some time with her mother this weekend. Apparently she's passing through town on business." Another pause, another sip of tea. "From what Fluttershy tells me, her mother makes a considerably large salary. Well, I guess she would have to if she was able to afford Perryville Academy's tuition prices. At any rate, the trade-off is that she spends most of her time traveling, so when she gets the rare occasion to come through this part of town she always makes it a point to meet up with Fluttershy."

The remainder of the afternoon flittered away in a mix of snacks and idle conversation covering every topic that could be expected from a group of high school girls. It wasn't until the sun was hanging low in the western sky that Twilight finally broke up the party by announcing that she had to head back to the academy to fulfill her library obligations. At that, the rest of the girls began to consider their schedules and commitments, resulting in a sudden departure for all four visitors. Rarity arranged to have them taken home by one of her family's drivers, lest they have to make the trek back to the academy on foot. All four graciously accepted the offer, finding the option to take a limousine ride too good to pass up. As with most rare experiences, though, it was over too soon, and all four girls found themselves wrapped up in their usual mundane activities.

The ominous sound of the alarm clock signaled the dismal return of the school week. Wearily, Twilight reached out from under her comforter and switched off the repetitive beeping. Between her library duties, her homework assignments, her personal research, and the research that she had done into Rainbow Dash's situation, Twilight hadn't slept much between Saturday and Sunday. While she had prided herself on the amount of work she had accomplished at the time, she was now kicking herself as she fought against her desire to stay in bed. After an epic mental battle, she finally rose from her bed and began her morning rituals. As she finished dressing, the sound of rain pounding against the lone window in her room caught her attention. _And things just keep getting better_, she thought, retrieving her umbrella from its stand on her way out of the room. Outside, the rain was coming down in sheets, like small little needles intent on finding their way against her skin. The wind seemed to undermine her umbrella, driving the rain at just the right angle for it to find its way under her flimsy protection. She was considerably wet and was muttering words best left unsaid under her breath by the time she reached the school building. At least she had managed to keep her hair dry; it had a tendency of getting horrendously frizzy whenever it got wet.

Her friends were waiting for her when she arrived at the usual spot. They were all leaning in to listen to Fluttershy when Twilight approached, and did not seem to notice her until she opened her locker and tossed her umbrella inside. She slammed the locker door shut to find them all staring at her, mouths agape. "Hopefully you've all had a better morning than I have," she said, checking her textbooks to make sure they hadn't gotten wet.

"Twilight you...you look terrible," Rarity commented, her eyes darting up and down Twilight's drenched body.

"Thank you, Rarity, I wasn't aware," Twilight snapped back, her annoyance plain upon her face.

"Well someone's a Pouty Patty this morning," Pinkie Pie chimed in as she cocked an eyebrow at Twilight. Only the sound of the homeroom bell saved her from a nasty retort.

As they filed into the classroom, Twilight noticed that something was different: Ms. Cherri was standing at the front of the room. Usually, she didn't show up until several minutes after the students had taken their seats. On any other day, Twilight would be compelled to ponder over the meaning in this change of events; today, though, she just wanted to be left alone by everyone, her own mind included. Upon reaching her desk Twilight promptly flopped down in her seat, slid her books under her chair, and laid her head on the desk. She and exhaustion had flirted on more than one occasion as a result of her overzealous research, but this was an entirely different level. At that moment she wanted nothing more than to just sleep for the entire day. The very first tendrils of rest began to pull at the back of her eyeballs when Ms. Cherri's voice rang out, pulling Twilight back to the conscious world.

"Alright class, I would like your undivided attention, please. We have a new student joining us today. Now, he is a year younger than all of you, but I'm told that he is very bright, and is up to the skill level for this class."

_Year younger? _Twilight thought, her mind snapping to Celestia's letter. She sat up in her chair, her attention focused on the front of the room.

Ms. Cherri was leaning out of the door at the front of the room. After a few seconds she pulled herself back inside, a male student in tow. Twilight studied him intently, taking in his appearance. He was short, even shorter than Twilight who barely stood at sixty-three inches herself. This new boy was sixty-one inches at best. Look-wise he was easy on the eyes, although Twilight would not have described him as 'handsome' per se. His brown hair hung to his shoulders in thick waves, framing an ovular face. _So this is my brave protector _she silently commented.

Ms. Cherri began to speak again. "Alright class, I would like you all to meet your new classmate: Travis Skelver. Mr. Skelver, would you like to say a few words to the class?"

The new boy cleared his throat and scanned the room before speaking. "Well, as Ms...Cherri said, my name is Travis. I'm originally from Casterly, but I transferred here on a special referral. I like music and fantasy. That's basically me in a nutshell." A smile flickered across his face, disappearing as fast as it appeared. Whether it was an attempt to act friendly or to mask something, Twilight couldn't tell. _His voice is kind of high-pitched for a fifteen year old boy_, Twilight noted, _yet somehow it seemed to fit with his overall appearance_.

"Well, if that's all then you may have a seat. Yours will be-"

"I would like the desk next to Ms. Talo-I mean, Twilight, please," Travis said, cutting Ms. Cherri off. A series of "ooo"s arose from the students in the classroom.

Ms. Cherri seemed taken aback by the new student's rudeness. After a moment she finally stuttered out, "W-well that seat belongs to Mr. Walker, I'm afraid."

As if on cue, Travis withdrew an envelope from within his blazer and handed it to the teacher. With confusion spread on her face, Ms. Cherri tore the envelope open and withdrew the paper within, reading it over several times. "I see," she finally said. "Well, if that's the case then it can't be helped." She cleared her throat and looked up. "Mr. Walker, please take the empty seat in the center of the classroom. Mr. Skelver, you may take the seat next to Twili-I mean, Ms. Talon."

Twilight cringed at the use of her real name. She looked to her right and watched as Joe Walker gathered his belongings in silence. _Poor guy _she thought. Even though she had her suspicions as to what was going on, she couldn't help but feel bad for Joe. It was then that she realized that the rest of the classroom had their eyes not on Joe, but on her.

As Joe moved away from his old seat, Travis moved to take his place. He walked down the aisle swiftly, either not noticing or, more likely, ignoring the stares that his classmates were giving him. He slid into his seat and turned to look at her.

"Twilight Sparkle, I've heard a lot about you. It's nice to finally meet you." This time the smile on his face seemed genuine, and his voice held a much warmer tone than it had when he addressed the class. He looked around the room as if watching for something before speaking again. "It looks like I arrived before my books did. Would you mind sharing with me for today?"

Between the sleep deprivation, her bad mood, and the suddenness of the situation, it took Twilight a few seconds to process what was going on. When Travis' question finally clicked, she quickly grabbed her math book from under her seat and replied, "Sure. Our first subject is math. We should be starting on page 379 today, so you might want to have a look at it."

Travis thanked her and took the book, opening it to the indicated page as Ms. Cherri began the daily roll call. Before she was even halfway through, Twilight felt a tap on her shoulder and turned to see Travis holding her book out to her. "This is a little farther along than the material I've covered so far, but I think I'll be able to catch up."

_I guess he's as bright as Queen Celestia said, _Twilight thought as she took the book from Travis. _She probably should have made sure he was caught up on the material, though. _She opened the book up to the same page she had told Travis and noticed a small scrap of paper stuck in the binding. As she removed it, she noticed that there was a note sloppily written on it that read:

Sorry for being so curt. I'm really not good with crowds. We'll talk more at lunch.

She glanced over at her new classroom neighbor, but his attention was fully fixed on the front of the room. Twilight couldn't tell whether he was genuinely interested in the forthcoming math class, or was just embarrassed over what he admitted in the letter through the stone face he was wearing, but she had a hunch that it was latter rather than the former. Either way, she doubted she would get anything else out of him until the aforementioned lunch period, so she began her preparations for math class.

Lunch time finally rolled around and Twilight, who was extremely hungry, wasted no time in heading for the lunch room. Travis was quick to offer to accompany her, though he said very little during their trek down to the cafeteria. It wasn't until they returned to the classroom and sat down with the usual suspects that he spoke again.

"Oh yeah, Twilight, I'm supposed to give this to you," he said, pulling a letter from within his blazer and handing it to her. "Sorry about that. With everything going on I completely forgot." He gave a nervous laugh and scratched at the back of his head.

Twilight looked down to exam the letter. Unlike Queen Celestia's usual letters, this one was clearly emblazoned with the royal seal, and she quickly tore it open to read it. Her enthusiasm subsided, though, when the letter essentially just explained what she already knew: that Travis was the bodyguard she had spoken of in her previous letter.

"So, you're in charge of protecting our dear Twilight," Rarity stated mater-of-factly, eyeing Travis from head to toe. "No offense, but you don't really look like much of a bodyguard."

"Rarity, that's mean!" Pinkie Pie cut in before Travis could defend himself. "If he's protecting Twilight that means he'll be hanging around with us. If he's hanging around with us that means he's our friend now, and friends shouldn't be mean to friends. OO! If he's our friend, he also needs a nickname!" She was practically bouncing in her seat at this point, though it seemed that only Travis was surprised by this spectacle. After a moment of shock, he cleared his throat and finally replied.

"Actually, I already have a nickname. Well, it's more of a stage name, but it's all the same, I guess. I used to sing for a band, and they started referring to me as 'Spike'. It was an inside joke sort of thing that isn't worth explaining, but I am kind of fond of it," he explained as he took a bite of the turkey sandwich he had purchased from the cafeteria. Twilight watched him sit back in his chair as he chewed, his eyes darting between her five friends as if he was studying them intently.

"Aw, that's too bad. I love giving people nicknames, too," Pinkie Pie pouted. Her period of disappointment lasted for approximately two seconds before she perked back up. "Oh, I need to finish planning the welcome party! You'll enjoy it, I know you will! I've gotten some excellent ideas now that I've been on the other side of the door!"

Travis, aka Spike, smiled and nodded at Pinkie Pie's enthusiasm. He was obviously put off by her overwhelming energy, but then again most people were. Then a look of familiarity seemed to grow on his face and he leaned in, his face a mask of seriousness as he asked, "What do you mean by 'the other side of the door'?"

Pinkie Pie's eyes widened and she clasped her hands together. "You want to know about the door? It's about time somebody asked! It's the door that-"

Before Pinkie could continue, Rarity covered her mouth with a hand. "Pinkie Pie, let's not put too much on the poor boy at once. Why don't we save the door discussion for another time."

Twilight noticed Spike giving Rarity a look that she couldn't quite identify, though intrigue seemed to be a close description. In an attempt to help defuse the situation, she cut into the conversation. "So you mentioned you sang for a band, but didn't you say earlier that you're not good with crowds?"

Spike took his eyes from Rarity and turned towards Twilight, and with a half-smile responded, "I had a feeling you'd ask that. It's sort of a situational thing. When I would sing in front of a crowd, it was easy to forget that they were there. I would get so caught up in the music that I would be in my own little world. Plus there was no personal interaction with the crowd members, outside of occasionally high-fiving a crowd surfer. Being in a crowded classroom is different. There is no real barrier between the other students and myself," his face was flushed red at this point; no doubt he was embarrassed at admitting this fact. "I don't know if that makes any sense to you, though. Maybe it's one of those things that you have to experience to understand."

The explanation made perfect sense to Twilight. On stage he was elevated, he was above the crowd. In his mind, he was separated from them. In the classroom he was on the same level, and was therefore one among the crowd. At least, that was her interpretation. There were a ton of other questions she wanted to ask him, but at the same time she didn't want to overwhelm him, so she settled on her most important one. "So why exactly does Queen Celestia feel that I am in so much danger that I absolutely must have a bodyguard?" she asked, staring straight at Spike. With a sigh the boy put his sandwich down and looked her straight in the eyes, replying in a voice barely above a whisper.

"I really don't think we should be discussing this here. What if somebody hears us?" In response, Twilight looked around the classroom, which was deserted save for their group and a couple, who were far more intent on hanging all over each other. She looked back to Spike, who seemed to catch her meaning. He rubbed his temples, sighed again, then continued. "Shame on the Night is obviously trying to weaken the public opinion towards Queen Celestia, but their attacks also have another obvious motive. They're hoping to wear down the queen's own resolve by attacking things that are important to her. If they wear down her resolve, she may willingly step down from the throne. That's our theory, anyway. Based on that theory, we determined that there was a high likelihood of Shame coming after you, since the two of you have a very close relationship. That's why I'm here."

He sat back in his seat, as if to signal that he was done with the topic. Rarity was obviously not ready to let the situation drop, though, for she cut in with, "I know this may sound harsh, but how much do they honestly expect one teenage boy to do against an entire terrorist organization? The whole thing just seems half-baked, honestly."

Spike's eyes snapped over to her, with that look of intrigue again returning. Twilight couldn't quite finger the source of his intrigue, but if she had to guess it was probably that he didn't expect such a straight-forward question. After a few seconds he seemed to remember that he was supposed to be answering a question and continued with, "First off, Shame operates in small groups to avoid drawing attention. If they were to try anything, it would likely only be one or two members who would come after Twilight. The queen did put a contingency plan in place, though. There are six members of the royal guard who will be stationed at the school's main gates on rotating eight hour shifts. Since the gate is the only way in and out of the school-unless someone really wants to try climbing those ridiculously high walls-there's little chance of anyone suspicious getting inside. I'm essentially the last line of defense." Rarity seemed to be content with that explanation, for she went back to eating her lunch instead of continuing her line of questioning.

The rest of the lunch time conversation was much more laid back. Rainbow Dash began to eagerly ask Spike about the band he used to sing for, and Spike seemed more than willing to talk about it. Apparently, his band had called themselves The River Dragons and had played heavy metal with a slight progressive influence. They had recorded an album during the year that he was with them, although he would not go into detail on what caused him to leave the band, only stating that it was the result of outside influences. Whatever had caused his time with the band to be brief, though, they all had to admit that recording an album at such a young age was impressive. When the conversation turned from his old band to his family, Spike seemed to sober from his good mood. He refused to give up any information beyond the fact that his parents had also been employed by the royal palace. Before the group of girls could press him for anymore information the end-of-lunch bell rang and they all had to head off to their specialized courses.

Twilight wasn't overly surprised to find that Spike had signed up for the same specialty program that she was in. After all, he was her bodyguard, like it or not, and he couldn't guard her if he was somewhere else. She also wasn't surprised by his obvious lack of interest in the subject matter. After all, her specialty was science, and right now they were focused on Physics, a dry subject for most students who weren't Twilight Sparkle. For her, the last three hours of the school day felt like they breezed by, but the same could not be said for Spike judging by the look on his face. When the dismissal bell rang, the young bodyguard almost knocked his desk over in his haste to get out of the classroom, and it seemed that he was fighting the urge to drag Twilight out with him. Once they finally did leave the classroom he turned to her and commented, "I really don't know how you find that interesting. I think I'd rather take a drill to my teeth."

Twilight couldn't help but giggle at his extreme reaction. "It definitely is an acquired taste. I know you're only here because you have to be, so what would you have taken if you had actually had the choice."

"Music, writing, or geology. I really like gemstones," Spike replied immediately, catching Twilight off guard. After a few seconds she finally managed to reply.

"That last one seems a bit out of place with the other two."

"It does, doesn't it?" Spike admitted.

After that the two companions didn't say much else as they made their way to the lockers, and then to the library. The weather outside was chilly, not quite to the point of needing a jacket, but enough to tell Twilight that she would need to dig hers out soon enough. Spike seemed intent on taking in the surrounding areas, pretending that he was watching for suspicious individuals. The amazed look on his face as he looked around the school grounds betrayed his intentions, though.

When they finally reached the library, Twilight lead Spike through the rows of bookshelves to the staircase at the back of the building. She headed up the stairs to change into her regular clothes while Spike waited for her at the bottom. Inside the room, she sat her backpack down on top of her desk and began to change, selecting an old pair of jeans and a purple t-shirt to work in. She pulled her hair back into a ponytail and slipped on her sneakers before walking back out of the room to meet Spike. "Well, it's time for me to get to work. You should probably get your things unpacked so you can start on tonight's homework," she commented as she made her way back to the front of the library.

"I'm going to help you out with this. I was told to make myself useful to you, so you can put me to work," Spike replied as he followed her. Twilight opened her mouth to argue, but decided against it.

When they reached the front of the library there were two large carts overflowing with books waiting to be put back. Twilight sighed at the workload, prepared for a long evening. She and Spike each grabbed a cart and then wheeled them into the history section, where she always started. The books on the carts weren't arranged in any particular order, as they never were thanks to Ms. Meredith. The old woman had never liked Twilight and always seemed to go out of her way to make the schoolgirl's task more difficult. With another heavy sigh, Twilight began to rummage through her cart for a history book. "Hey Twilight, would you mind giving me a few minutes?" Spike asked as he began to dig through his own cart.

Twilight gave him a puzzled look and said, "What for, exactly?"

Without saying another word, Spike began to dig through the mess of books, extracting every history book he found and arranging it by the last name of the author. Within ten minutes he completed this task for both carts, handing the first stack of books with last names A-K to Twilight. Try as she might, Twilight could not hide the amazement on her face as she began to ascend the ladder attached to the shelving unit. "What section do you usually file next?" Spike asked from below.

"Science," Twilight replied as she began to place the 'A' authors in their respective spots. By the time she was done with the history books, Spike had already sorted and organized all of the science books.

This process continued for every section until they were finished. Twilight had prepared herself for a three hour task, and was surprised when they finished in just under ninety minutes. With a smile, Twilight commented, "You know Spike, you are the best assistant ever." She couldn't help but chuckle when the boy began to slightly blush.

"So, is there anything else you need help with?" Spike replied, turning his face to try and hide the redness creeping into his cheeks.

"No, that's everything. Now I just need to do my homework, so you can go ahead and get settled in," Twilight told him as she made her way back to her room. She was surprised when Spike began following her again. "I told you, you don't have to come with me."

"Oh, I'm not, I'm heading to my room," Spike responded.

His answer confused Twilight, but she decided to see where this situation was going. As they reached the steps to her room, Spike continued to walk past them and approached a door that sat on the first floor directly under the door to Twilight's room. "Spike, that's a storage closet," Twilight said, cocking an eyebrow.

Spike gave her a half smile as he opened the door and flicked the light on. "No, it _was _a storage closet," he stated, motioning for her to look inside the room. She approached the door and stared inside in amazement. All of the supplies that had originally been in there were gone, along with the shelving units. The room was rather large, as far as storage closets go, and she found herself wondering where all of the supplies had been moved to. In the back left corner of the room sat a bed, probably moved from one of the dormitories, and the rest of the room was littered with boxes-presumably Spike's belongings.

"The queen wanted me to be as close to you as possible at all times," Spike explained. "If she had it her way, I think we'd be staying in the same room-but of course that wouldn't be allowed to happen! Anyway, this was the arrangement that was made. If there's anything you need, just bang on your floor. I should be able to hear it since I'm right below you."

There was a part of Twilight that wanted to protest this decision, as it seemed wrong to make a student live in a storage closet; however, when the closet was approximately the size of a normal dorm room, it was hard to find a solid foundation for said argument. Then something else dawned on her. "Wait a minute, what about a bathroom?"  
>"Well that's...the interesting part," Spike responded. "As far as brushing my teeth and having toilet access, I can just come out and use the faculty bathrooms within the library. Taking a shower, on the other hand, will be a problem. Queen Celestia told me to just use your shower, but I doubt you'd be willing to do that."<p>

Twilight stood silent for a moment, weighing the situation in her head. It was true that letting a stranger-and a male stranger at that-use her shower would be awkward, but she couldn't deny him what was essentially a basic human right. With a sigh she replied, "It's fine, just do me a favor and give me a heads up before you decide to come up." The idea of having a boy in her room was discomforting enough, even if the situation was completely platonic. She didn't need to risk him walking in and seeing things that would make the situation worse. With that situation settled, she turned away from the room and said, "I'm going to go get started on my studies. If you want some help unpacking feel free to come get me."

She headed for the stairs and made her way up to her room. Once she was inside, she sat down at her desk and put her hands in her head. This situation just seemed to keep getting more and more awkward, and she was going to have to keep dealing with it. "Queen Celestia, what have you gotten me into?" she muttered to herself.

**Closing comments: **So I'm sure there are some people who are confused with how I chose to portray Spike. Essentially, I wanted to have one of the main characters look "normal" by human standards. While I kept the hair colors for the mane six, I decided that Spike would just have a standard hair color. I think coming up with his personality was the hardest part, since human Spike is older than baby dragon Spike, and thus I had to upgrade his maturity level. There are also some other factors at play that won't come to light until later, as well. I hope I did a good enough job bringing him into the story, and his character will get plenty of time along with the mane six.

An interesting tidbit: I initially meant for Spike's character to actually be a male version of Trixie, complete with the arrogant personality. Spike was going to only have a cameo appearance. I scrapped that idea, though, when I decided that it would be better to have a main character play Spike's role. That, and the fact that Trixie's personality didn't really fit a bodyguard role. I'm not sure if anyone caught it, but Trixie has made a brief cameo in the past as a TV reporter.


	7. A Night At The Spleen

**Chapter 7: A Night At The Spleen**

**Opening Comments: **For once, I don't really have anything to say. Planning a wedding is hard. Enjoy the chapter.

"Has anyone seen Spike?" Twilight asked as she looked up from her Applied Physics textbook. He had left to get her a drink quite some time ago, and she hadn't seen him since; of course, she had been wrapped up in her studying, so it was possible that she had somehow missed him. There was a test after lunch, and though she was already over-prepared she figured a little extra studying couldn't hurt. Across the group of desks Rainbow Dash shook her head.

"Nope, I haven't seen him since he went to get your water. Maybe he decided to run away," she said with a laugh as she finished off her can of cola.

"Rainbow Dash, that's not a nice thing to say!" Rarity snapped. "I'm sure Spike is on his way back. He's still new to the school, so perhaps he just got a little lost."

Twilight drummed her fingers on the cover of her book, thinking about what to do. _I really want to get some more studying in, but I'll feel horrible if he doesn't get to finish his lunch because he ran an errand for me _she thought to herself. With a resigned sigh, she slid her chair out and stood up. "I'll go find him. Whether he likes it or not he still has to take this afternoon's test too, and he shouldn't take it on an empty stomach."

Across from her, Rainbow Dash began to rise while saying, "I'll help you out."

Twilight shook her head and motioned for Dash to sit back down. "You don't have to do that. Go ahead and finish your lunch; I have a good idea of where he is, anyway. He only had two options for where to go: the cafeteria or the vending machine on the way to our specialty courses. The vending machine's closer, so he's probably there." She moved away from her group of friends as she finished her explanation, disappearing through the door at the back of the classroom. Once she was gone, Dash began to smile mischievously.

"So, she's worried about Spike and wants to go find him all by herself. That sounds a little fishy, don't you think?"

With a sigh, Rarity replied, "If it was anyone else, I would be willing to entertain what you're suggesting, but this is Twilight we're talking about. All she thinks about is books and research; I don't think the idea of love is anywhere in that girl's mind." She paused for a moment as she contemplated her thoughts. "Still, if it was true I suppose Spike wouldn't be a bad choice. He's not the type of guy I would choose, but he certainly isn't horrible."

"I think it would be wonderful if Twilight fell in love with someone," Fluttershy squeaked from the other end of their makeshift table. Applejack let out a loud laugh in response, causing Fluttershy to shrink down in her seat out of shock.

"It would be wonderful, wouldn't it? But it ain't goin ter happen, sadly. We all know Twilight too well," Applejack commented, still chuckling at the notion. "I don't suspect we'll ever see Twilight hook up with someone."

Pinkie Pie sat at Fluttershy's left, completely oblivious to the conversation until Applejack had let out her laugh. She paused from the party planning that had so distracted her to say, "I don't think that's very nice. Sure Twilight has her faults, but it's not like she doesn't have feelings. Friends should encourage each other, and you're not being very encouraging right now." The rest of the girls tried to maintain straight faces as they received Pinkie Pie's scolding, but it was a challenge. She was the last person they would ever expect to seriously lecture them, after all. "Now I want you all to think about how mean you're being while I finish planning Spike's party." As she said that, Pinkie Pie felt something tug at the back of her mind, a nagging thought that wouldn't quite surface. "Spike... Spike... why do I feel like I'm forgetting something?" she muttered to herself, scratching her head. After a few moments with no results she shrugged her shoulders, said "Oh well" and went back to her planning.

Twilight was getting ever closer to the vending machines, and still had seen no sign of Spike. She was starting to wonder if her guess had been wrong; after all, Spike should have at least been on his way back by this point. As she prepared to round the corner to the vending machines, the sound of loud voices reached her ears, causing her to stop. Slowly, she peered around the corner to see Spike cornered by two rather large high school boys. Twilight recognized them almost immediately: they were the top two members of the school's wrestling team. More importantly, they were known for harassing new students. _Probably some sort of primitive dominance thing _Twilight thought to herself.

"Yo man, what's wrong with you? Just give us the money and we'll let you go," the slightly larger of the two was saying. He towered over Spike, almost a foot taller than the younger boy. His hair was buzzed close to his head, and his muscles were almost unreal-then again, you didn't become the top wrestler in school without spending plenty of time at the gym.

"Hey, maybe he thinks he's too good for us," the second boy chimed in. "He's from Casterly, so he's probably thinking, 'Oh, I live in the royal city. I'm too good for you.' Something like that, you know?" This guy was a stark contrast to his companion-short where his companion was tall (but still taller than Spike), a head full of hair where his companion was almost bald, and lean where his companion was muscular. Twilight found herself wondering how he could possibly be number two on the wrestling team, and suspected that his friendship with the number one had more to do with it than any actual skill.

"Look, it's not like that," Spike finally replied. "If you had any idea what my life was like in Casterly you would feel a lot different. And like I've already told you, this isn't my money, so it's not my place to give it away. You'll just have to rob somebody else." He motioned to move between the two boys, but was forced back against the wall by the bigger student.

"I already told you, I don't give two shits who the money belongs to, hand it over! Don't make me take it by force."

Twilight watched as Spike's eyes narrowed. _Don't do anything stupid, Spike _she thought. She chewed at her thumb knuckle and thought, _I should do something_; but what could she do? She certainly wouldn't be any match for two members of the wrestling team, and she doubted she could find a staff member and bring them here before things turned violent. As she began to formulate a plan, she watched in horror as Spike's right arm shot out in a right-hook aimed at the bigger student's face... unfortunately for Spike, his punch fell short and landed on the larger student's chest. Whether it was a result of Spike's height (or lack thereof), a lack of skill, or a combination of the two, Twilight didn't know. She had a feeling it didn't really matter, either.

"Wrong move, kid," the number two wrestler commented as he landed a blow straight to Spike's solar plexus. The two wrestlers took turns hitting Spike for several seconds before prying the money from his left hand and walking away. Twilight darted across the hallway to his side.

"Oh my gosh, Spike, are you okay?" she asked, kneeling down next to the now sitting Spike.

Spike looked up at her and laughed. "Yeah, I'm fine." He moaned and gripped his lower ribs, where he had taken most of the blows. "Okay, maybe I'm not so fine. But it's a really my fault for throwing that first punch. Of course, I could have held my own if I had to, but I'm not supposed to hit other students, you know? Bodyguard rules and all." Twilight saw right through the lie, but decided to bite her tongue and allow Spike to preserve some of his dignity.

"I feel like this is my fault," Twilight commented as she helped Spike to his feet. "If I hadn't asked you to get me a drink you never would have run into them. On top of it, they took all of your money."

Spike let go of Twilight's hand and leaned against the wall. "Don't worry, they didn't get all of my money; that was only what you gave me to get the water. I wonder how long it will take them to realize they only got me for two bucks." This time his laugh was genuine. He lifted up his right foot and removed his shoe. Reaching down into the toe of it, he pulled out a wad of bills. "This is where I keep most of my cash."

Twilight wrinkled her nose and let out a low, "Ew", at Spike's revelation. She could only imagine what that money looked-and smelled-like after a long, hot day. Her disgust didn't seem to bother Spike, who simply pulled off a few ones, placed the wad back in its hiding place, and then put the shoe back on his feet. He hobbled over to the vending machine, put the money in, and selected the water. As he went to reach for the bottle that was dispensed, Twilight said, "I'll get it," and quickly approached the vending machine to retrieve her drink. "No offense, but your hands were just inside your shoe. Who knows what kind of germs are on them."

Spike gave her a blank stare for a moment and then began to chuckle. "You really are an interesting one, Twilight." He winced as pain shot through his ribs. "Well this is going to make the rest of the day interesting," he muttered.

"Do you want to go back to your room?" Twilight offered.

Spike shook his head. "No, that would defeat the purpose of me hanging around you to protect you." Twilight opened her mouth to speak, but Spike cut her off before she could. "And don't even think about offering to come with me. There's no way I'm going to cause you to miss that test. You've been studying your butt off for it."

Defeated, Twilight simply hung her head. _He's going to regret this. It is a thoughtful gesture, though,_ she thought. With a resigned sigh she approached Spike and placed her arm around his waist. "Come on, then. I can at least help you get back to the classroom." Spike threw his arm around Twilight's shoulders and together they began making their way back to the classroom.

The end of the school day had come at last, but Twilight had needed to make a quick stop before leaving the building. Simply put, she drank too much water during the day, and couldn't wait to get back to her dorm room. So, she stepped into the girls' room and left Spike waiting outside. As she was finishing up and preparing to walk out of the stall, though, she heard two girls talking outside of the door.

"You know that new guy, right? The one who just joined our class this week?" asked the first girl.

"Yeah, you mean the one with the long hair?" her friend replied.

"That's the one. Have you ever noticed how he's always staring at that one girl? I mean, he's fixated on her. He couldn't be any more obvious if he wrote 'Date Me' on his forehead," the first girl laughed.

_They're talking about Spike,_ Twilight realized. _Looking at a girl? _She could only assume they meant her; after all, Spike was her bodyguard, and he had been paying her a lot of attention. _I should go out and clear this up,_ she told herself. _I don't want anyone spreading bad rumors about him._ She stopped just before she opened the stall door, though. _What if they get mad about me eavesdropping? Well, it was just an accident, right? Still, they might get mad._ She ended up staying in the stall.

"I think it's cute," the second girl replied. "He's too nervous to admit his crush, so he just stares in silent admiration. It's like something out of a romance novel." She squealed and shouted, "Hey, don't splash me with water!"

The first girl chuckled. "Sorry, but I had to get you out of those daydreams of yours. If you keep reading those romance novels your brain will turn to mush. Come on, let's get out of here."

Twilight listened for the door to open and close before finally stepping out of the stall. She approached the sink and began to wash her hands. _Geez, why does everyone have to gossip in the bathroom? _she said to herself. _Still, what if they're right? Spike having a crush on me? Wouldn't that make things awkward? _She reached for a paper towel and dried her hands. _Still, I can't say that anyone has ever had a crush on me. It's kind of... flattering? Oh come on, Twilight, you have more important things to worry about than romance! _She chuckled at her own inner monologue and tossed the paper towel away before walking out of the door. Despite her quick dismissal of the situation, though, she still found it a bit awkward to look the waiting Spike in his eyes.

**Saturday**

"No, no, that banner is supposed to go over _there_," Pinkie Pie said, frustrated. She had been at Cranston Bakery for three hours now, trying to get everything set up for Spike's welcome party. When a group of girls from her event planning classes offered to help her out, Pinkie Pie was delighted. However, she was now starting to think of them as more of a hindrance. Something piqued her interest from the corner of her eye. She turned, and then shouted, "Stacy, no! You can't use those kinds of adhesives! They'll pull the paint off the wall!" Damages to the shop were the last thing she needed. Cranston didn't usually rent out its space for private parties, but since Pinkie had spent so much money in cakes over the past year alone they had decided to make an exception. Any damages were likely to impact her reputation with the shop, and that was something she certainly couldn't afford. She continued to watch Stacy, who was now staring absently at the adhesive squares in her left hand and the banner in her right. After several moments, it was clear that she didn't know what to do, so Pinkie Pie sighed and approached the bottom on the ladder on which Stacy stood. "Climb down, I'll take care of it," she said.

_This is ridiculous. We still have a bunch of decorating to do, and I still need to hide the random pranks. Everyone seemed to love it the last time I did it... or the last time the other me did it... ah, this is confusing _she thought to herself as she ascended the ladder, grabbed the roll of scotch tape that was lying next to the adhesive squares, and taped the end of the banner to the wall.

She descended the ladder to examine the banner, which had been inspired by the logo for Spike's old band. The logo he had shown her had a dragon weaving its way through the band's name, 'The River Dragons', with the letters done in a watery font. Pinkie Pie had removed the band name so that the banner simply showed a dragon over a field of water. As she admired her handiwork a thought raced through her mind. As it began to settle in her eyes began to grow wide, and after a few seconds she shouted, "That's it!" before darting out of the shop, leaving the rest of her crew completely bewildered.

Spike was lying on his bed, completely engrossed in the ridiculously large fantasy novel he was holding. The book was the fifth in a series, and had taken several years to come out, so Spike intended to spend his Saturday savoring the long-awaited story. As he was reaching the climax of a particularly brutal fight scene, he heard his door slam open as someone screamed, "You're Spike!" Out of instinct, he sat up and cocked his arm, prepared to launch his book in defense. Only the sight of bright pink hair stayed his arm.

"Geez Pinkie Pie, you almost took eight pounds of epic fantasy to the face!" he exclaimed, lowering his arm and placing his free hand over his palpitating heart. "Now what's so important that it couldn't be preceded by something like, oh, I don't know, a knock at the door?"

"Sorry, it's just that...you're Spike!" Pinkie blurted out, though much quieter this time.

"I...realize I'm Spike. We established that on Monday. Not quite sure why that was worth the invasion of my privacy." Pinkie Pie shook her head.

"No, I mean you're THE Spike, the dragon! Twilight's little helper! Why didn't I see this before?" She walked over to him and put her hands on his shoulders. "Why didn't you say something before?"

Spike pulled away from Pinkie Pie and gave her a quizzical look. "Pinkie Pie, I have to be honest. You're starting to freak me out a bit." A thump overhead caused him to pause. "Well, we're about to get our butts handed to us."

Pinkie didn't need to ask what Spike meant; it was fairly obvious. Twilight's room was located directly above Spike's, which meant any loud noises from Spike's room would easily carry up into Twilight's room. Given that it was the weekend, it was safe to assume that Twilight was deep into her studies, which all of the loud noise had undoubtedly interrupted. Put all of that together, and it was only logical that they were about to face the wrath of Twilight. The thought to book it out of the room occurred too late, for when Pinkie turned to make her exit she found herself face-to-face with a red-faced Twilight.

"You two do realize you're in a _library_, right? On top of that, you do realize that there are people trying to _study_ don't you?" Spike and Pinkie both nodded in unison. "Then why, might I ask, are you down here making so much noise?" Twilight fumed, her glare bouncing from Pinkie to Spike and back again.

Stone-faced, Spike raised his hands and shook his head, as if to say 'It wasn't me'. Before Twilight could say anymore, though, Pinkie cut in with, "Twilight, don't you realize? This is SPIKE!"

Twilight cocked an eyebrow at her eccentric friend. "Yes, Pinkie, I'm well aware that this is Spike. He's my bodyguard, after all. It would be pretty messed up if I forgot his name."

Pinkie shook her head. "Nooooo, you don't get it either! This is Spike! Dragon spike! Purple dragon, green spikes, with a tail?"

Twilight's mind shot back to a dream of a rainy day spent in a tree library with a short, bi-pedal dragon. She shook the image from her mind. "Pinkie, I thought we had moved past all of this pony and dragon stuff. You were sick and hallucinating or...something. Yes, I will admit that it is an odd coincidence that we would meet someone by the nickname of 'Spike' a few weeks later, but that's all it is-a coincidence."

"B-but Spike...dragons...I..." Pinkie stammered, unable to find the words to form an argument. Spike patted her on the back and smiled at her.

"It's okay, Pinkie. It's probably my fault for letting you listen to my old band's album. I didn't realize you were having hallucinations like that. I'm sure the song about the woman finding a dragon's egg coupled with my nickname probably contributed to it." He walked over to the laptop sitting on his desk and brought it out of sleep mode before opening several folders. Twilight still stood in the doorway, analyzing the situation. While Spike's theory seemed to have a solid logical foundation, she couldn't help but notice that there was a hint of forced assurance in Spike's voice, as if he wanted Pinkie to accept that as the answer. _Could he be hiding something _she thought to herself. She quickly shook the thought from her head. _Come on now, Twilight, you're getting as bad as Pinkie. Next you'll be thinking that he's a dragon or something, too._ The sound of heavy drums and loud guitars pulled her from her thoughts.

"Gah, Spike, what is that?" Twilight snapped, covering her ears.

"Oh, sorry, I guess I should have turned the speakers down some," Spike replied, adjusting the volume to a more comfortable level. "This is the song I was talking about. Pinkie was asking about the album the other day, so I gave her a copy."

Twilight found herself paying attention as the vocals came in. True to Spike's description, the song was about a young girl who stumbled upon a dragon's egg and took care of it, eventually hatching and taming the dragon within. Slowly but surely, her attention became focused on something else-the production value of the song. While it wasn't anywhere near the quality that she would expect from a professional band, it was still fairly decent, especially considering that Spike's band had only been a local group. "Hey, Spike, how did you guys record this?" she found herself asking.

Spike, who was caught up in memories from his singing days, didn't process the question right away. After it sunk in, though, his attention snapped to Twilight and he responded, "Oh, our bassist, Matt, was going to college for music production. He had some recording equipment that he had gotten at a liquidation sale, so we recorded it in his basement, or as I liked to call it, his BASSment." Spike began to laugh at his own joke, but quickly stopped when he noticed Pinkie and Twilight rolling their eyes at the weak pun. He cleared his throat. "Anyway, I think that should clear up the issue of Pinkie's dragon dreams." He paused and reached into the second drawer of his desk, producing a CD. "Here, Twilight, why don't you take a copy for yourself? Give it a listen." Spike walked over and pressed the album into Twilight's hands.

"Well...okay, I guess it won't hurt. I'll listen when I have some free time. Should you really be giving these away like this, though?"

That seemed to amuse Spike. "Relax, I have two boxes of the darn things back home. We barely sold any of them at our shows, so we got stuck with a surplus that was divided amongst the band. We were supposed to hand them out to promote the band, but then some things happened, I had to quit, and who knows what happened with the rest of them. We basically fell out of touch. I've been trying to get rid of these things since then, so you're doing me a favor."

Content with the explanation, Twilight excused herself and turned to leave. "Wait!" Pinkie Pie cried out. "You guys are trying to change the subject and avoid the situation! I know the situation looks weird, but can you really say this is just a coincidence?"

Twilight sighed and began to speak, "Pinkie, you had a fever hallucination or dream or something that we were all ponies and that there was a dragon named Spike. You got over the fever and everything was good. Then we met someone who uses the name Spike who happened to play in a band that wrote a song about a dragon. Your mind took the name "Spike" and the word "dragon", dredged up that hallucination, and that's how you got to this point. That's all. Perhaps you're subconsciously insecure about the whole situation and think that we're still judging you for the fever situation, so you thought this would be proof. Trust me, though, we are not judging you." She finished her thoughts and watched Pinkie, who seemed to slowly digest everything.

"You don't understand, on the other side of-nevermind, you're right Twilight. Your explanation makes perfect sense, or at least it sounds like it does. You know more about that kind of stuff than I do." She slumped her shoulders in defeat and made her way to the door. "Anyway, I'm going to go finish what I was doing before. Remember to be there by five." With that, she was gone.

Twilight turned to Spike and said, "Well, you heard her, I have to be somewhere at five, and since you're playing the whole bodyguard role you'll have to come with me. If you want a shower or anything I'd suggest you consider taking care of it soon." Without another word she walked away, headed for her own room.

Spike crossed to the doorway and pushed the door closed, leaning against it with a heavy sigh. "That was crazy," he thought aloud. "I'd better keep an eye on Pinkie. Things could get complicated."

A few hours later, Spike found himself standing in the center of Cranston Bakery, surrounded by faces new and familiar alike. He had to admit to himself that he was quite nervous, but he was used to dealing with the nervousness thanks to his time in the band. The welcome party had been a complete surprise, and he hadn't known how to initially react. Besides Warrel, an old friend from Casterly, no one had ever done anything this nice for him before. Rainbow Dash had joked that Spike looked as though he was about to cry, and though he laughed it off as a joke the truth was that he had been fighting back tears of joy. Once his emotions subsided he began to take in the atmosphere around him.

To say that Pinkie Pie had outdone herself would have been an understatement. The crowd was incredibly huge, with faces both new and familiar in the crowd. She had decorated the entire space with an assortment of banners, balloons, and ribbons, all somehow connected to him. There were even hints of his old band logo on some of the banners. Even the music playing had been tailored to his tastes, which explained why Pinkie had been so interested in his music library all week. _For someone who's supposed to be a bodyguard you sure are bad at picking up obvious clues, _he chided himself. He felt truly bad for all of three seconds, and then he found the boneless hot wing platter.

It was some time before he realized that Twilight was no longer with him. With a sinking feeling in his stomach, he began making his way through the crowd of people, calling her name. It was almost impossible to hear anything, though, between the music and the endless chatter. After a few moments he found Pinkie Pie standing at the center of a group of girls he didn't recognize, smiling from ear to ear while she was discussing something that he couldn't quite make out. If she was still bummed about the situation earlier she wasn't showing it.

Spike squeezed his way into the circle of girls until he was at Pinkie's side. He tapped her on the shoulder and she turned to look at him. "Oh hey Spike!" she said happily. "How do you like the party? I really went all out for this one!"

"It's great!" Spike replied. "But I seem to have lost sight of Twilight. Have you seen her?"

Pinkie pointed to her left and said, "Yeah, she's right over at the drink table with Applejack! You shouldn't worry so much, though! This is your party, have fun!"

After thanking her and assuring her that he would, in fact, have fun, Spike made his way out of the gaggle of girls and over to the indicated drink table. Sure enough, Twilight and Applejack were standing there talking, just like Pinkie Pie had said. He waved and called out to them, until he took a good look at Applejack. She was dressed in a pair of cut-off jeans and a button down shirt; much less than he was used to seeing her in. Her down-dressed appearance, combined with a lack of experience with girls, caused him to blush. Twilight and Applejack had already noticed him at this point, along with his blushing.

"Well lookee here. Spike's got himself all flabbergasted!" Applejack laughed, patting the boy on the back. "Not used ta seein' girls in casual wear?"

"W-well, not that kind of casual wear," Spike commented, looking to Twilight, who was dressed in a pair of jeans and a t-shirt.

"Aw, yer just used to that city girl look. This is how we farm girls do casual, though. You'll get used to it." She ruffled his hair and chuckled again. "So whaddaya think? Does it look good on me?" She teased.

"Um, yeah, well, sure," Spike stammered. "I mean, it's not necessarily my type but um...it does you justice...you know...um...yeah..." He fumbled around for words that just wouldn't come to him. The more he flailed, the more Applejack seemed to be amused.

"Ah, so ya have a type, then? Well come on, spill it! What's your type?" She patted him on the back and shot him a huge grin, making it all too obvious that she was enjoying this.

Spike blushed and looked at his shoes. "W-well, I always thought girls with glasses were cute. Not those big coke-bottle glasses, mind you, but smaller glasses. A-and I like girls who don't try to hide who they are, you know, girls who are just honest and straightforward." His face was bright red at this point.

"So that's what ya go for, eh?" Applejack smiled and stroked her chin. "Ya wouldn' happen ta have yer eyes on-" Twilight cut her off before she could finish.

"Come on, Applejack, haven't you teased him enough? You're even starting to make me uncomfortable now," she commented, laying a hand on Spike's shoulder. "Don't make him feel so embarrassed at his own welcome party."

Applejack chuckled and waved her hand in the air. "Alright, alright, you win. I was just havin' a bit o' fun is all. I'm gonna go check out the food table. You guys have fun now!" With that she wandered off into the crowd, leaving Twilight and Spike alone.

"Are you okay now?" Twilight asked, turning to look at Spike.

He turned his eyes to her and smiled. "Yeah, now that the pressure's off me I'm good. Geeze, what was that all about, anyway? You think Applejack's got a thing for me or something?"

Twilight laughed and then quickly apologized. "Sorry, but trust me, you're not Applejack's type. She's more into the handyman type than the musician-bodyguard-schoolboy type. Actually, by that description I think you are your own unique type," she teased, sparking a chuckle from Spike.

With the previous tension finally dissolved, the two began making their way through the crowd again, stopping to talk with people that they recognized. At one point, Pinkie Pie announced to the whole party that she was going to play a "special song", which turned out to be one of the songs from Spike's album. He found himself blushing again when she revealed this, as the entire party seemed to turn its attention on him. A few people complimented the work, but most seemed to quickly go back to what they were doing, allowing Spike to breathe a sigh of relief.

"You know, for an ex-singer you sure don't like having a lot of eyes on you," Twilight commented.

"Well, it's different when you're on stage. With all of the lights in your face it's really hard to see much of anything, so my focus isn't really on the people watching me. Plus some things have...changed...since then."

Twilight was curious as to what he meant by 'things have changed', but before she could voice her question Spike had motioned for her to follow him and then walked off. When he finally stopped, he was in front of the shop's main counter, waving hello to Rainbow Dash. "Hey guys, this is a pretty awesome party, huh?" she asked, smiling and turning back to the shop's owner. "I have to say, it was really cool of you to let Pinkie hold this here."

The shop owner, an older, portly gentleman, chuckled and replied, "Well how could I say no to Pinkie Pie? She's my best customer! Besides, with all of these kids here, there's a good chance that I'll attract some future customers as well."

Rainbow Dash nodded her agreement and then turned back to Spike and Twilight. "Oh yeah, guys, this is Mr. Cake. Mr. Cake, this is Spike and Twilight."

"Mr. Cake? Well, I don't know if my cake is good enough for that kind of a nickname, but I think it is pretty good," he laughed, patting Dash on the back.

"Mr. Cake? That's not what I said, is it? I could have sworn I said Mr. Cranston," she thought aloud, looking to Twilight and Spike for support, but they only shook their heads. "Huh, I guess it was just a slip of the tongue. Oh well." She began to turn back to Mr. Cranston, but then quickly snapped her head back around to Spike. "Hey, Spike, what's up with the tail?"

Confused, Spike turned to look at his backside, thinking that someone might have put something there as a joke. When he saw nothing, though, he looked back at Dash with a confused look and asked, "Are you feeling alright, Rainbow Dash?"

Dash blinked and rubbed her eyes. "Wow, I must be going crazy. Too much training, I guess. We have a lot of indoor meets coming up, so I've been putting in a lot of extra practice time." She chuckled nervously and rubbed the back of her head. "Well, I'm gonna go get something with a lot of sugar. Maybe that'll wake me up for a bit, huh?" With that she sauntered off into the crowd, leaving her now confused friends behind. After a moment, though, they shrugged it off and went back to enjoying the party.

The rest of the evening continued on in a blur of music, cake, and dancing. Rarity had humored Spike by dancing with him to some old heavy metal ballad while Twilight watched. She wasn't much of a dancer and preferred to not embarrass herself in front of all of these people. While Rarity clearly wasn't into the style of music, she still danced elegantly-or at least as elegantly as one could dance to such music. _I'm a bit jealous, _ Twilight had to admit to herself. She had read about dancing, sure, but her feet didn't seem to like the actual application of the dance moves.

The sound of breaking glass and flesh connecting with flesh ended the revelry, though, as a fight broke out between students from the local public high school and students from Perryville Academy. Apparently, the public school students had invited themselves to the party, and had started goading on members of the Perryville Academy football team. After a few choice words, the situation had quickly devolved into a full-blown fist fight, and the rest of the party goers were in full retreat mode. Spike had to throw his arm out to prevent Twilight from trying to get involved. "Trust me Twi, it's safer to not get involved," he said sternly.

Twilight tried to push past him as she said, "Fighting is strictly against school rules, whether on or off campus. Someone has to stop them!"

In response, Spike produced his cell phone and held it out to her. "If you really want to intervene, then call the cops. No offense, but they'll be more effective than you or I could hope to be."

Seemingly satisfied with Spike's solution, Twilight quickly dialed the local emergency number and reported the incident. It didn't take long for two police cars to show up and drag the dueling high schoolers away. Unfortunately, the police also put an end to the party for the 'sake of public safety'. Slowly but steadily the partygoers dispersed, until only Spike, Twilight, Pinkie Pie, Applejack, Rarity, and Fluttershy were left at the bakery.

"Hey, where's Rainbow Dash?" Pinkie asked, looking around to see if she somehow missed her.

"Oh um...she left a little while ago. She said she wasn't feeling too good...she kept seeing weird marks on people or something. I think she was really tired," Fluttershy replied in her usual soft voice.

"Well poo," Pinkie spat. "I wanted all seven of us here for a private after party." She gave an exaggerated pout, which only served to amuse her friends.

"Well, Spike, I hope you will enjoy your time at Perryville Academy. It really is a wonderful school," Rarity commented.

"Yeah, this was really fun. Well, minus the fight that ended it all, of course. I haven't done anything like this in a long time," Spike replied. _I just wish the rest of my life could be this laid back and casual, _he though. _Damn my luck._

**Afterword: **Well, that about wraps up Chapter 7. I wanted to use the chapter and the party setting to integrate Spike into the world more. Along the way there were some small advances, as well, but nothing too earth-shattering. If you're starting to wonder when something big is going to happen, though, then you'll definitely want to stick around for Chapter 8. Well, that's all for now. I hope you enjoyed Chapter 7, and I hope you stick around for Chapter 8.


	8. The Duelists

**Chapter 8: The Duelists**

**Opening Comments: **Chapter 8 is upon us. This chapter starts the events that will inevitably bring this story to a close. If you've been waiting for answers and/or action, it starts here. I consider the event at the end of this chapter to be "big", so hopefully those of you who have been waiting for something "big" to happen will think so, too.

It had been four days since the party, and two days since Rainbow Dash had slept. Her concentration was shot, her track performance almost non-existent, and her attitude abysmal, but it was the only way to avoid the hallucinations. If she slept, she had the pony dreams. If she had the pony dreams, she saw elements of them everywhere she went. When the incident had first occurred at Spike's party, she had written it off as an odd phenomena. Now she didn't know what to think of it. All she knew was that she could not sleep. She mentally re-affirmed this fact as she chugged yet another energy drink on her way to her locker. Her friends had already beaten her there.

"...and then I said, oatmeal? Are you crazy?" Pinkie was saying as Dash approached the group. As soon as Pinkie saw her she ran over and threw her arms around Dash's shoulders. "Good morning Dashie! You're running late today!"

Dash gave a small laugh and shrugged out of Pinkie's embrace. "Y-yeah, I guess I am," Rainbow Dash replied with another laugh. "You're energetic, as always." In her sleep-deprived state, Dash found that she had little tolerance for Pinkie's hyper antics. She had to fight to keep her composure; after all, it wasn't Pinkie Pie's fault that she hadn't slept for two days. Dash glanced around at her friends, trying to find something to talk about. After a moment, she noticed that two people were missing. "Hey, where are Twilight and Spike?" she quickly asked.

Rarity spoke up first. "Twilight had to drop off some extracurricular work before homeroom, and Spike, being her ever loyal bodyguard, went with her." She paused for a second and then continued, "Of course, that was about ten minutes ago. Now they're right behind you."

Dash turned to look behind her, and sure enough there were Twilight and Spike approaching the group. She began to greet them, but before the words could leave her lips Spike cut her off by saying, "Holy crap, what happened to your face?" From the corner of her eye Dash caught Rarity covering her face with her hand.

"Well, we weren't saying anything about that in an attempt to be respectful, but now that Spike has so graciously blurted out what we were all thinking..." Rarity allowed her sentence to trail off as she eyballed Dash.

"W-what do you mean? Nothing's wrong," Dash stammered. "I've just been... you know... putting in a lot of practice at the track, what with the meet coming up and all." She could feel her friends eyes boring into her, as if they were weighing her words for truth. Before anyone could comment, though, the morning bell rung and spared her any further inquisition. After quickly stashing her bag in her locker, Dash grabbed her books and bolted into the classroom, leaving her friends to follow in her wake.

She entered the classroom and took her seat, fighting the urge to lay her head down on the desk. Caffeine could only sustain her for so long, and she was reaching her limit. If this kept up, she wouldn't be able to run in the upcoming track meet for which she had worked so hard. _You've gotta pull it together Dash, you just gotta..._ she thought to herself as her eyes fell closed and her head bobbed forward. A tap on her shoulder sent her jolting upright. "I wasn't asleep, I promise! Look I'm wide awake!" she shouted, drawing the entire class' attention. She blushed and sheepishly turned to see Spike standing behind her, his eyes wide with shock.

"For the record, I don't really care if you sleep in class or not," he commented. "I just wanted to tell you that my friend Warrel finally got my GameStation 3 to me, and I also picked up a copy of Soul Render 4. Twilight said you like fighting games, so I figured I'd ask if you wanted to help me break it in after school."

Despite his attempts to act casual, Dash could tell that Spike was trying to read her for any signs of what was troubling her. _Play it cool _she told herself. "S-sure, I'll take you on! You'll be sorry when I kick your butt, though," she replied, puffing her chest out with false confidence. The gesture seemed to amuse Spike, who chuckled before returning to his own seat. _Good, if you have something to do you won't want to fall asleep _she thought. For now, though, she had to get through the school day. That was the real challenge.

"..ash? Dash? Rainbow Dash!"

Dash felt a hand shaking her shoulder and snapped her head around. Twilight stood behind her, a perplexed look plastered on her face. "Are... you okay?" her friend asked after a moment.

It took a moment for Rainbow Dash's brain to take everything in. She was standing at her locker with the door open. _How long have I been here? _she wondered. Then another, more horrifying thought crossed her mind. "Twilight, was I asleep?" she blurted out, turning to fully look at her friend.

Twilight seemed to pull back slightly, as if she were afraid of being hurt. "No, you were just kind of... standing there staring into your locker. I guess you could have been sleeping with your eyes open." Twilight replied slowly. "Is everything okay? You've been acting really weird lately."

Dash didn't immediately reply. Her eyes began to dart around to the few people still left in the hallway. _No hooves, no horse ears, no weird little tattoo thingies... alright, I'm good _she thought to herself before finally returning her attention to the conversation. "Yeah, I'm fine, never felt better!" she lied. "Hey, where's Spike? He's due for a butt-kicking on Soul Render!"

As if in response, Spike stumbled around the corner of the hallway, with a large number of books stacked precariously in his arms. "Did you really have to make him carry all of those himself?" Dash asked incredulously, as she silently celebrated the change of subject. Twilight sighed in response.

"He insisted that I let him carry all of them. 'Oh, I'm here to protect and assist you! Let me get those!'" Twilight said in a mocking tone.

Rainbow Dash smiled mischievously and patted Twilight on the shoulder. "It's okay Twi, you don't have to hide the fact that you like it. After all, it's not often that you have a guy doting over you."

Twilight's face flushed red as she retorted with, "I do not!" Dash simply burst into laughter as Spike, who was oblivious to the whole exchange, finally made his way to them and managed to set the books down. Dash watched silently as Twilight started to pick through the books, dividing them into two separate stacks. One stack she lifted and placed in her locker; the other was divided between her and Spike.

After that business was settled, her friends began to walk away from her. When he realized that she wasn't following them, Spike turned his head and hollered, "What, are you chickening out of our match?"

Dash snapped fully back into consciousness, laughed, and said, "Heck no! You're going down!" as she rushed to catch up to them.

"Oh that was a cheap shot!" Dash shouted as Spike backed her character into a corner before executing a special move. She watched her health gauge drop to just a sliver, which Spike happily stripped away with a simple weak kick. The game announcer happily declared his character the winner before beginning a replay of the match.

"What happened Dash? I thought you were going to kick my butt," Spike goaded as he stood up and walked over to his mini fridge and extracted a soda. Technically students weren't supposed to have fridges, microwaves, and the like in the dorm rooms, but technically he wasn't in a dorm room. He withdrew a second can and tossed it to Dash, who barely managed to catch it. "Alright Dash, something's not right. You have the best reflexes of anyone I've ever seen, and yet you almost got bonked in the head with that can. What's wrong? And don't feed me that 'nothing, I'm fine' crap, either."

Dash sighed and sat the can on the small, low sitting table in front of her. "Spike, I'm serious, I'm f-" she stopped when she noticed the evil glare he was giving her. With another sigh she hung her head and began to explain everything-what she had seen at the party, what she had been dreaming, and what she would see after waking up. It embarrassed her to admit it, but it also felt good to finally get some of the stress off of her shoulders. To her surprise, Spike didn't seem to be overly shocked about the whole situation. He didn't try to speak until she had finished her story.

"So basically, if you could sleep without dreaming then it wouldn't be a problem, right?" he finally said after she was done. She nodded her agreement, which set Spike to digging through one of his desk drawers. After a moment he pulled out a small bag of what appeared to be small leaves and offered it to her. "That's a herbal remedy that I found online a while ago. You simply boil them and then drink the result. It represses your REM cycles, which is where you dreaming occurs. It's fairly effective, too. Granted, you won't get as restful a sleep as you're used to, but it's still better than no sleep."

Dash stared at the small bag curiously for a moment. Several questions popped into her mind, such as why Spike would ever have a need for this, and if he was sure it was really safe. She ultimately decided to keep her mouth shut, though, for fear of offending him. Instead she just thanked him and excused herself so that she could finally try to get some sleep. As she was about to walk out the door, though, Spike stopped her.

"Is everything okay?" Dash asked, her hand resting on the door knob.

"Yeah, it's fine, but you told me your secret, so I figured I should tell you mine," Spike said. He was looking at his feet and rubbing his hands together nervously. Dash couldn't help but want to know, despite her exhaustion. After a moment's hesitation he began to speak again. "I'm... going to ask Rarity to go out with me."

"You sly dog!" Dash responded. "I thought I caught you checking her out a few times! Well, good for you!" She didn't have the heart to tell him about Rarity's comment the other day. With a good luck wish Dash walked out of the room, closing the door behind her.

Spike watched the door closed, then walked over and locked it before returning to his desk. He pulled a spiral notebook from one of the drawers and placed it on the desk top. Inside, he had an equal number of pages tabbed for each one of the girls. He opened to the Rainbow Dash section, where he already had 'Inexplicable increase in speed' and 'Hallucinations at party' scribbled down. Below those, he added:

Dreams of ponies, with images carrying over into the conscious world. I gave her a sleep aid. Deterioration may be occurring faster than previously assumed.

He sat back and stared at the page for a moment, lost completely in thought. _I may need to request permission to execute our plans earlier than expected. _A knock at the door brought him back to reality. "Who is it?" he called.

"It's Twilight. I'm here to help you with Physics, like you asked."

Spike quickly stashed his notebook in its hiding spot before crossing the room and unlocking the door. His pondering would just have to wait for now.

"So, how has that herbal treatment been working for you, Rainbow Dash?" Spike asked as the seven friends sat down to lunch. It had been two days since he had given her the medicine, and she was looking considerably better. Still, he wanted to hear it from her mouth.

"I feel great!" Dash exclaimed, pumping her fists into the air. "Whatever was in that stuff you gave me worked great. It tasted horrible, though." She stuck her tongue out to feign disgust.

The rest of the group looked at the two with perplexed stares; understandable, since they had not been included in Dash's confession. When Twilight inevitably questioned them, Spike quickly responded with, "Well, Dash was telling me that she was having trouble falling asleep thanks to the stress from the upcoming meet, so I gave her a herbal remedy for relaxation. I went through a phase a few years ago where I obsessed over herbal remedies and such, so I tend to keep a few of the more useful ones on hand." He shot Dash a quick wink as if to say 'you're secret's safe with me'. Twilight seemed to be satisfied with explanation, for she returned her attention to her chicken salad sandwich and whatever book she had brought with her.

Spike was glad for the easy diversion. While he was truly concerned with Rainbow Dash's situation, there was something else he needed to do that he was much more concerned with. Now that he knew Dash was doing fine, he could focus his attention on his own interests. He kept stealing glances at Rarity from across the table, trying to gauge her mood. She seemed to be fairly content, which put him at ease for what he was planning. He watched the clock with nervous eyes, never before so anxious for lunch to end so that he could get through his afternoon classes. His own thoughts began to consume him, until he heard Twilight begin to speak next to him.

"Oh, Rarity, I wanted to ask if you're free this Saturday," Twilight stated, looking up from her book.

"This Saturday? Well, I didn't have anything planned. Why do you ask?"

"I need to have my highlights touched up," Twilight commented, pulling at her hair to indicate the shades of pink and dark purple running through her hair. "They're starting to grow out and fade."

Rarity clasped her hands together and rested her chin on them, her eyes searching Twilight up and down. "Well now, this is a pleasant surprise. I had to fight with you for weeks before you'd let me put those in, and then I had to harass you to maintain them. I guess all my hard work has finally won you over."

Twilight's face flushed slightly red. She looked away from Rarity's studious gaze. "Y-yeah, something like that," she replied. "So will you take care of it for me?"

"Of course! Design may be my calling, but cosmetology is my passion! How does Saturday evening at five sound?"

"That will be just fine," Twilight confirmed as she went back to silently reading her book.

The rest of the lunch period passed with the typical high school chatter. When the end-of-lunch bell rang, the group re-arranged the desks into their proper positions and then dispersed to their specialized afternoon courses. Spike could feel his stomach knotting up with a combination of excitement and tension. Now he just had to get to the end of the day.

**After school**

Spike stood by the lockers, nervously checking the time every couple of seconds. He had arranged to have Rainbow Dash escort Twilight back to her dorm so that he would be free to do what he needed. While it was a clear violation of his duties as a bodyguard, he felt that he could trust Dash to at least do that much. Besides, Shame on the Night would be stupid to attempt any sort of attack in broad daylight. That was how he justified it to himself, anyway.

Time felt like it was standing still. Students filed by him, extracting their belongings from their lockers and leaving for the day, never giving him a second thought. He started to wonder if he had somehow been too slow, if he had missed her...until he saw her round the corner.

Rarity was walking by herself, her books and binder clasped under her arm. He rushed over to her. "Hey, Rarity, let me help you with those." She seemed to be surprised by his sudden appearance.

"Spike? What are you doing here? Shouldn't you be with Twilight?"

"I have Rainbow Dash keeping an eye on her for me," he explained as he took Rarity's books from her. The two of them walked silently back to the lockers, where Rarity began to input the combination into the lock.

"Say, Rarity, there's something... I want to ask you," Spike began, his heart pounding so hard he feared it might burst through his chest.

"Yes, what is it?" Rarity asked, matter-of-factly, as she began to take her belongings from Spike and stuff them into her backpack.

"Well, you see, how do I put this..." he trailed off for a moment, unsure of how to continue. This was a new experience for him, after all. Finally, completely frustrated with himself, he quickly blurted out, "Rarity, will you be my girlfriend?"

Everything seemed to freeze around him. The look on Rarity's face was clearly one of surprise, and it seemed that she didn't quite know what to say. An eternity seemed to pass, the two of them simply staring at each other, before she finally replied with, "I'm sorry Spike, but no."

Spike began to jump up and down. "Yes! I knew you'd say that! I promise I won't let you-wait, did you say 'no'?"

Rarity sighed and closed her locker door. "I'm sorry, Spike, but yes. You're a nice guy, but you're just not my type." She reached out a comforting hand, but he pulled away.

"No, it's alright, you don't need to apologize. It's not like you did anything wrong, after all." He kept his gaze locked on his feet; he just couldn't bring himself to look up at her. "Anyway, I should probably get back to Twilight. I've shirked my duties long enough." He could feel the tears beginning to well up behind his eyes. Rarity couldn't see him cry; he at least needed to have that shred of pride remain with him. Without giving her a chance to say anything else, he took off down the hallway.

The cool air hit him full on as he burst through the school doors, but it didn't seem to faze him. At this point, the tears were beginning to flow down his cheeks. _Why did I even try? I haven't even known her that long _he thought to himself. _Besides, it's not like I'd get to see her anymore after this is all said and done. _Those thoughts didn't help to stem the sadness that was boiling over inside of him, though. He turned his face downward in an attempt to keep his fellow students from seeing his tears. It felt like an eternity had passed before he finally reached the library doors. He paused for a moment to collect himself, drying his eyes on the sleeve of his blazer. _Get ahold of yourself, Spike. Crying over this is ridiculous! Be a man for crying out loud! _he mentally berated himself. When he finally managed to collect himself, he entered the library and found Twilight hard at work organizing the books. Rainbow Dash was helping her, but it was obvious that she wasn't enjoying it. Spike tapped her on the shoulder.

"Hey Dash, thanks for helping me out. You can head out now; I can take it from here."

Dash looked at him silently for a moment, as though she were studying him. Finally, she said, "Are you okay, Spike? Your eyes look a little red."

Spike gave a forced laugh and shrugged. "I guess it's just the autumn chill getting to me. I'm fine, I swear. Hey, why don't you come over for another round of Soul Render on Saturday?"

"Sure thing," she replied, setting down the book she had been holding. As she walked past him she said, in a voice only loud enough for him to hear, "Maybe then you'll be honest with me."

Spike watched her leave, and then turned to see Twilight descending the bookcase ladder. "She's right, your eyes do look bad. Are you sure there's nothing wrong?" She too began to study him, though her gaze was much more intent. He knew that Twilight wasn't as easy to fool as Dash, so he quickly set himself to organizing the books on the book cart.

"Everything's fine. Seriously. Now let's get this over with so I can play vid-I mean, study."

*** Saturday

"Come on, again?" Dash yelled as Spike's character delivered its finishing blow. The character turned its back to the screen and bent over, making rude gestures at its back side. "That's so messed up," she muttered. Spike rolled with laughter.

"I thought you said you were _good _at fighting games," he teased, exiting the game back to the character selection screen.

Dash shrugged her shoulders. Once upon a time she had been good at fighting games, but she hadn't had a lot of play time ever since she started seriously focusing on running. It appeared that her gaming skills had gotten rusty. Well, testing her ability to mash multi-colored buttons wasn't exactly why she was here, anyway. She sat her controller down on the low sitting table in front of her. "Alright Spike, spill it. I already knew you were asking Rarity out the other day, and you haven't said anything else about it since. The two of you aren't acting all lovey-dovey; in fact, it looked like you were avoiding looking at her at all. I may not be the smartest girl in school, but I can pick up on something that obvious. Still, I'd rather hear the truth from you."

Her straightforward approach seemed to catch Spike off guard. He stared at her, mouth opening and closing as he tried and failed to utter some form of protest. Finally, he sank back against the side of his bed, defeated. "Yeah, you're right, she turned me down. It hurt, too. It hurt like hell. I'm not really sure why, either. It's not like we knew each other very well. Hell, my attraction to her was mostly physical." He shook his head and drew his knees up to his chest. "I'm so screwed up."

Dash felt a pang of guilt in her stomach. She knew that this was most likely going to happen-Rarity had flat out said that Spike wasn't her type, after all. Even with that knowledge, though, she had chosen to stay silent so as not to interfere. As a result, Spike was upset and his friendship with Rarity had become awkward. _This is your fault_ she told herself. "Say, Spike, have you ever tried asking a girl out prior to that?" She finally asked.

"No, this was the first time. Sure, I saw some cute girls at the shows we used to play, but I never really felt compelled to pursue them. I guess you could say Rarity was my first crush." He laughed, though at what Dash could only guess.

"Well, there's your answer, then. It has you so upset because it's a new emotion. You can't expect to handle it like a champ." She reached out and playfully punched him on the arm. "Buck up! The right lady is out there somewhere!" That seemed to bring a smile to Spike's face. He opened his mouth to speak, but whatever he was going to say was cut off by a knock at the door.

"Spike, are you almost done? We have to be at Rarity's in an hour," Twilight said through the door.

_Well, isn't that awkward _Dash thought to herself. She rose to her feet and walked over to the door, opening it and quickly stepping out. She closed it behind her.

"Dash? Oh, that's right, you and Spike were playing that game again," she commented. She was dressed nicer than Dash was accustomed too. Dressed in a long-sleeved purple tunic and jeans, Twilight looked more like she was going on a dinner date than to a hair appointment. What was extra surprising was that she was wearing her glasses. They were half moon and set in a black frame.

"Someone's dolling herself up today," Dash commented.

Twilight looked down at herself, as if she was surprised that Dash was talking about her. She looked back up and shrugged. "W-well, you know, Rarity is always berating me about not taking care of my appearance, so I thought I should make an effort." She cleared her throat and continued, "Anyway, do you know if Spike is ready, or if he was planning to change before leaving?

The mention of them leaving snapped Dash's attention back to the situation at hand. She laid a hand on Twilight's shoulder and looked at her seriously. "Listen Twilight, it's really not right for you to drag Spike to Rarity's house. I don't know if you know this, but Spike has a crush on-"

"Yes, yes, I know, Spike has a crush on-" Twilight started to say.

"Rarity," Rainbow Dash finished over top of her.

"Rarity. Right. Wait, what? Rarity?" Twilight looked completely flabbergasted at the thought. "Where did you hear that from? I mean, she doesn't even match his type. He said he likes girls with glasses who are straightforward!"

Dash shrugged her shoulders. "Rarity does wear reading glasses, in case you haven't noticed. And she's not exactly shy about hiding her personality," she began to explain. Then something clicked in her mind. "Wait a minute. Twilight, are you... are you jealous?" Dash began to grin widely as the thought played through her mind. Twilight began to blush.

"What? Jealous? No, of course not! You know I don't have time for trivial thoughts of dating and crushes!" she blurted out, turning to look away from her inquisitor. "Anyway, why should that stop him from going to her place?"

Rainbow Dash sighed, realizing that she wasn't going to be able to tease Twilight. "Well, he asked her out, and she rejected him. That's why he looked so upset the other day. You can't tell him I told you this, but I just thought that this could lead to an uncomfortable situation, so I figured it was best if I said something."

Twilight sighed and began to rub her temples. Dash could only guess what was going through her mind at that moment. "Well it's too late for me to cancel now. Rarity would never let me hear the end of it. And there's no way Spike will let me leave the campus without him." She paused for a moment, clearly deep in thought. Then her face lit up with obvious realization. "Of course! Rarity's family is filthy rich! They put a bowling lane in their basement! He can just do that while we're there. That way he'll never have to see Rarity!"

The idea made sense on a basic level, but Dash couldn't help but feel that it somehow wasn't fair to Spike. Still, she got the feeling that nothing she said could stop this whole thing from going forward. After all, Twilight was right: Rarity was a stickler for keeping appointments, and she tended to lecture like a doting mother whenever one of them broke an appointment. She just prayed that things wouldn't be too awkward. "I guess that will have to do. Just try to make sure he's not too uncomfortable, okay?" Dash patted her friend on the shoulder. "I'll see you guys later."

An hour later Spike and Twilight were standing in the main hall of Rarity's home. This was Spike's first time here, and he couldn't help but be amazed at the sheer size of the place. "This has nothing on the royal palace, but for a civilian home, this is huge," he commented. Rarity's butler seemed to be greatly amused by Spike's comment. The old man covered his mouth with a gloved hand and chuckled.

"Well then, if you are ready I shall lead you both to Ms. Rarity," the butler finally stated, gesturing towards the double staircase near the back of the room.

Twilight raised her hand and shook her head. "That won't be necessary. I know where Rarity does her hair work at. Could you please show Spike to the bowling lane, though? I don't think he really wants to sit around and listen to girl talk."

"Of course, madam," the butler replied, bowing to Twilight before gesturing for Spike to follow him. Spike watched as Twilight headed up the staircase and out of sight. The idea of leaving Twilight alone for so long unnerved him; but then again, what could really happen to her here? The butler cleared his throat and spoke. "May I show you the way, sir?"

Spike's attention snapped back to the situation at hand, and he nodded in response to the question. The butler lead him behind the double staircase to a door set in the back wall of the mansion. The old man opened the door to reveal a long, twisting staircase, which he lead Spike down. Despite his service in the royal palace-which was much more grand than even this home-Spike couldn't help but be amazed at what he was seeing. At the bottom of the steps was a long hallway, stretching away in either directions. The hallway was lined with doors on either side, with large paintings in between. Spike didn't recognize the small signature in the corners of the paintings, but painter had been stellar, whoever he or she may have been. The figures in the paintings almost seemed like they could jump out of the canvas at any moment. It was awe-inspiring and unsettling at the same time. He felt a shiver go down his spine. Suddenly, without warning, the spell was broken by the butler's voice.

"Here we are, sir," he said with a low bow, indicating a door to his left. He opened the door as he explained, "This is the bowling lane. You shall find all of the equipment you need inside-ah, it appears the younger mistress is already here. Well, I suppose you shall have some company, then."

Spike entered the room and immediately saw to whom the butler had been referring. A young girl, no older than ten, was already using the lane, rolling gutter ball after gutter ball. He turned to ask the butler who the girl was, but the old man had already disappeared. _Well that's strange _he thought to himself. The old man hadn't so much as made a sound as he left. Or perhaps Spike had just been too preoccupied. It made little difference either way, he realized, so he simply closed the door behind him and approached the girl. "Um... hey there... mind if I join you?" he asked. She didn't seem to hear him over the sound of yet another ball crashing into the lane and rolling into the gutter, so he tapped her on the shoulder.

The girl let out a loud shriek and turned, her small hand balled into a fist aimed right at his stomach. Spike threw his hand down reflexively and grabbed her wrist. He stopped himself from following through with the rest of the maneuver. "Calm down, I'm friends with your sister. One of her other friends, Twilight-I'm sure you know Twilight," he paused and the girl nodded, "okay, well, Twilight's getting her hair highlighted, and they sent me down here to entertain myself in the meantime. I'm not here to hurt you, I'm just here to have fun." She lowered her head and stared at her shoes.

"Um... I'm sorry 'bout that," she said softly. "You just scared me. My name's Sarah, but my mom calls me 'Sweetie Belle'."

Spike couldn't help but laugh at her sudden change in character. That inevitably drew a disgruntled look from Sarah. "Sorry, sorry," he apologized. "I'm Spike. Would you like some company while you bowl?"

Sarah's eyes widened as Spike mentioned his name. "Oh, so you're the guy whose heart my sister broke!"

The muscles in Spike's face tightened in embarrassment. He could feel his face beginning to get hot. "So Rarity um... made it a point to talk about that, huh?" he asked, as rage started to mingle with embarrassment.

With a shake of her head Sarah replied, "Oh no, Rarity would never do that. I uh... peeked... at her diary."

There was a part of Spike that wanted to remain mad. After all, this girl had inadvertently violated his privacy. Despite that, though, there was something about the puppy dog eyes she was giving him that seemed to disarm him. _Well, that's typical little sister stuff anyway, right?_ he rationalized. Yeah, that was right. Little sisters read their big sisters' diaries. That's all there was to it. He sighed and, without really thinking, patted her on the head. "Just don't go telling all of your friends about that. I'd like to reserve some of my dignity."

Sarah nodded vigorously. "So do you want to bowl with me? We have shoes over there," she pointed to a small rack of shoes in the corner. "It's just like a normal bowling alley, only with one lane."

Spike approached the rack and searched it until he finally found his size. He slipped his tennis shoes off and slipped the bowling shoes on. "So, I couldn't help but notice that you're not much of a bowler," he commented. That made the young girl blush. "I'm not exactly a champion myself, but I can at least help you keep it out of the gutter." Sarah nodded in response.

He walked over to her and placed a ball in her hand, then lined himself up behind her. He grabbed her hand and showed her how to line up her swing with the arrows on the floor, and how to time her release of the ball. On her next try, Sarah managed to knock down half of the pins. And so went Spike's evening.

"Honestly, Twilight, I must say that I was pleasantly surprised when you willingly asked me to touch up your highlights," Rarity commented as she pulled the highlighted chunks of Twilight's hair through the small holes in the highlighting cap. "I usually have to hound you endlessly to keep up with them."

Twilight didn't respond. Instead, she glanced around the small room, which had been set up with all of the equipment of a hair salon. Unlike most people, who had to make concessions when pursuing their passions, Rarity was able to go all out. _It must be nice to have so much money _Twilight thought, a pang of jealousy shooting through her. She mentally shook off the feeling; after all, Rarity hadn't done anything wrong.

From the corner of her eye, Twilight looked over at the other barber chair in the room. It was empty, and she couldn't help but feel that something was missing. "Hey Rarity, where's Fluttershy? You two are usually attached at the hip on the weekends," Twilight asked off-handedly.

"Hm? Oh, didn't I tell you? She's with her mother again this weekend. Apparently she's had a lot of business in the area lately." Rarity slid a small hook through one of the holes in the cap and pulled it back through, bringing with it a chunk of Twilight's hair. "It's a shame, too. We could have had a girls' beauty night."

Twilight chuckled at the thought. Once upon a time it would have seemed like a huge waste of time, but now the idea was almost tempting, even if it did mean she'd have to be away from her studies for an entire night. "I can't imagine Spike being too happy with that," she finally stated with a smile.

The mention of Spike's name seemed to pique Rarity's interest. "Speaking of Spike, where is he? The boy usually follows you like a loyal puppy. It's weird not seeing him here." She paused to set down her hook and retrieve the bowl of dye that was sitting on the small bench in front of the chair. She continued while mixing the dye around with a brush. "Granted, I'm almost relieved that he isn't here. That could have been... shall we say awkward?"

That comment snapped Twilight's mind back to her earlier conversation with Rainbow Dash. She felt an unfamiliar feeling surge through her. "Actually, he is here. He's using your bowling lane," Twilight commented. Somewhere deep inside she felt a sick satisfaction at the uncomfortable look that shot across Rarity's face. A heavy silence settled in the room for a moment before Twilight continued. "Rainbow Dash told me everything. So why did you turn him down, if you don't mind me asking?"

Rarity had begun rubbing the dye onto Twilight's hair when the question was asked. Twilight felt her friend's hand come to a complete halt. "That's quite the personal question, Twilight, but I guess there's no point in hiding it." Rarity paused, and for a moment Twilight wondered if she was reneging on her decision. Finally, she said, "It's just that Spike's not really my type. Besides, I wouldn't feel right taking him away from you, even if he was."

Pure frustration set into Twilight, and before she could stop herself she had thrown her arms in the air, completely startling Rarity. "First Dash, and now you. Why does everyone insist that I have a thing for Spike?" At her side Rarity began to chuckle. "What's so funny?"

"When did I ever say you had a 'thing' for him, Twilight? It's painfully obvious that you do, though. I can't believe you're so oblivious to your own emotions. I mean, we've all noticed you paying more attention to your appearance lately." Rarity placed her dye on the bench and shook her head. "You need to be more honest with yourself. I turned Spike down, but eventually someone will swoop him up. I hope you learn to be more honest with yourself before that happens."

Twilight felt the heat rushing to her face. She had never bothered with romance before-when had she ever had the time? _Maybe they're right about your feelings. You're different around him _she thought to herself. The thought settled on her brain like an oversized bird settling on a thin branch. Her head began to hurt. At some point Rarity began to work on her hair again, but Twilight wasn't really sure when. The rest of their evening passed in silence.

"Wow, it sure got chilly," Twilight commented, hunkering down in her coat. Cooler weather was to be expected since autumn was well underway, but that night's weather was practically frigid. She was starting to regret the refusal of a limo ride back to the dorms, but she had a ritual that she tended to stick to after her hair sessions, and she was determined to abide by it. _It probably wouldn't hurt to spend some time alone with Spike, either, given everything that's happened _she had told herself. So here they were, huddled in their coats as they traversed Perryville's main drag.

"You're right about that," Spike replied through chattering teeth. His face was hidden beneath the hood of his black coat.

They walked in silence after that. Twilight wanted to talk more, but the cold just made it so hard to concentrate on anything. Still, she felt bad. Spike had recently been heartbroken, yet she had dragged him to the home of the very girl who broke his heart. Even worse was the fact that she felt some sense of satisfaction at knowing he was turned down, because it meant that she still had a chance. She'd tried to continue denying her feelings, but after being confronted by both Rarity and Rainbow Dash, she finally gave up on that front. If she couldn't fool the people around her, then there was no point in trying to fool herself.

She tried to think back to her past to see if she had ever felt like this before-if she'd ever struggled with anything as much as she was struggling with this. _There was that time when I just couldn't grasp the concept of Bell's Theorem... but that's when I was seven. I doubt that's the same _she thought to herself. No, as far back as she could remember she had never held any sort of romantic interest. This was new ground she was treading on. No, it was more like she was walking on the edge of a cliff, and one wrong move would send her stumbling off the side. The problem was that she didn't know the right decision. Silence continued to hang between Spike and herself, broken only by the sound of the occasional passing car. Finally, after several more moments, she decided that nothing good would come from simply remaining silent.

"Hey Spike," she began, "I'm sorry for dragging you to Rarity's tonight. I um... I know about the situation between you two. I shouldn't have made you go, given the circumstances."

Spike's head snapped around, eyes wide and face red with embarrassment. "You _know_?" he said incredulously. Then, as suddenly as he snapped, he began to laugh. It was empty of any mirth, though. "Of course you know. Even Rarity's sister knows. I guess I'm a laughing stock to all of you girls now."

Twilight shook her head. "No, Spike, you're not a laughing stock. Dash was concerned about the situation, so she brought it to my attention. Even Rarity scolded me for bringing you there. We care about you, Spike, despite what you may be thinking. We all really care about you, especially m-" the word stuck in her throat, and she couldn't seem to get it out. She sighed and finished with, "Trust me, we all care about you." Whether or not her words actually had any effect on Spike she couldn't tell; he was staring at the ground, his face obscured by his hood. _Good job making the situation more awkward, Twilight._

She looked away from Spike to take in their surroundings. If she was right, they should be getting close to their destination... yes, there was the telltale green and white sign of her favorite coffee shop. While she didn't make a habit out of drinking coffee, she did enjoy the occasional cup, and it was a mandatory treat whenever she had Rarity work on her hair. Something about a fresh look and a nice cup of coffee just seemed to go together. Without thinking, she grabbed Spike by his wrist and began to pull him towards the coffee shop. He began to protest, but she cut him off with, "Just trust me. This is the perfect pick-me-up." She felt his resistance drop, and could only assume he was willing to at least give her method a chance. It may not be much, but it was the best she could do for now.

They reached the crosswalk with ten seconds left. The numbers continued to count down next to a flashing hand; they reached the other side with two seconds to spare. Past a few more shops and around the corner, and they were there. Twilight could see that the shop was still busy via the large windows; not surprising, considering the shop stayed open late, and therefore was a favored spot for college students to do some late night work/studying, not to mention all of the adults who came for their caffeine fix before hitting the town for the night. She remembered how hesitant she had initially been to try the coffee here, and now she was practically addicted. _Well, we're all allowed some guilty pleasures._

Twilight led Spike through the shop's door. Overhead, a small bell jingled to signal their entry. Unsurprisingly, there was a line at the counter, so the two friends filed into the back and began examining the menu. "Have you ever been to one of these places before?" Twilight asked. Spike nodded beside her.

"Yeah, once or twice. They're a fairly big company. I usually just grabbed a muffin or something, though. Coffee's good and all, but it doesn't really give me much energy. I much prefer a Mad Bull energy drink for that," he paused as if he was considering what to say next. "Still, a hot coffee does sound nice on a cold night like this." He sounded fine, but Twilight couldn't tell if it was genuine or forced. At least he was talking to her, though.

"I'd recommend the Pumpkin Spice if you haven't tried it before. It's really good," she suggested, trying to keep the conversation going. Again, Spike nodded.

"Alright, maybe I will. You know, I never took you for a coffee person, Twilight."

Twilight began to respond, but was cut off by an unknown voice from behind them. "Twiligh'? Twiligh' Sparkle?" She turned to see a grizzled looking man in a long coat. He was tall and thin, with dark stubble covering his cheeks and chin. His hair was cropped close to his head. There was something sinister about the look in his gray eyes. She wasn't sure whether to reply or not, but Spike seemed to make the decision for her.

"I don't think it's any of your business who she is, sir. We're just here for some coffee. I'd suggest you leave us alone." The usual light-hearted tone was gone from Spike's voice, replaced with something resembling authority. It didn't seem to put off the stranger, though, who laughed at Spike's words.

"Barkin' jus' like a good lil' guard dog, aincha?" the stranger replied. He spoke with a thick accent that Twilight couldn't quite place. "S'alright, I don' need ya to answer me. Not many people who'd use a nickname like 'Twilight' in the firs' place, anyway. Then yer right where tha lady said ya'd be. There's no mistakin' it." He started to move towards Twilight, extending his hand as if he intended to grab her. "Yer gonna need ta come with me, missy."

Twilight wasn't sure what exactly happened next. All she knew was that one minute the man was reaching for her, and the next he was recoiling, grasping at the back of his hand. Spike stood between them, something black and cylindrical in his hand. Surprisingly, the man was laughing. "Well, looks like tha dog's gaw some bite." He shook his hand and flexed it, before reaching into his coat. "Look kid, I don' wanna fight. I jus need the little lass there to come with me. Tha lady said somethin' about needin her magic. Don' know anythin' about magic meself. It's all fairytales s'far as I'm concerned, but the lady insists. Now you can move outta tha way, or," he paused and drew a knife from within his coat, "we can do this tha hard way."

There was a loud gasp, and it took Twilight a moment to realize she had been the one to make the noise. She looked around, and noticed that the other patrons had become aware of the situation. They were backing away from the confrontation, a few of them holding cell phones. _Yes, call the police. For the love of everything sacred, do it_ she thought. She wanted to scream it, but her voice stuck in her throat. Spike didn't seem to be backing down from the confrontation, either. He flicked his wrist, and the cylinder in his hand extended to about three feet by Twilight's estimation. It ended with a small ball. "Twilight, get away," he snapped, his eyes not leaving the assailant. Numb, and unable to utter a word, Twilight simply nodded and ran.

Spike watched from the corner of his eye as Twilight moved away from him. The would-be kidnapper tried to move past him to follow her, but Spike swung his baton around, aiming straight for the man's ribs. He blocked it with his knife. "Come now, kid. We don' need to do this. Jus move aside an' let me have the little lassie." The man tossed the knife back and forth between his hands. It was a short blade-no more than two feet-which meant Spike had the advantage of reach. Somehow he doubted that would matter much, though.

"Go to hell," he spat at the assailant, rushing forward and thrusting the baton at the man's stomach. The stranger grabbed the baton with his free hand, pulling Spike towards him. His other hand began to bring the knife down towards Spike's back, but Spike allowed the combined momentum of his attack and the assailant's pull to carry him forward, bringing his shoulder into the attacker's stomach. The man crashed into the condiment stand behind him, cracking his head on the counter. Spike fell on top of him and quickly sprang back to his feet, baton at the ready.

"Tha hurt, ya lil' bastard," the man cursed as he rose to his feet. He threw off his coat and took a fighting stance. "I ain't playin' whicha no more. You wanna die so bad, then let me make it happen."

Spike quickly whipped his own jacket off, tossing it at his assailant. It hit the man in the face, blinding him for a second. That was all Spike needed. He brought his baton around for a low strike, catching the man in the side of the leg. He would have preferred to go for the ribs, but there was a lot of liability that could come from that. The man groaned and sagged to the side. He threw Spike's jacket to the floor, his face pure rage. Whatever pain he was feeling didn't seem to hinder him from rushing at Spike, blade at the ready.

Spike brought his baton up to block the strike. He was surprised at how strong the strike was, given the man's injured leg and the difference in their choices of weapons. It was taking most of his effort just to hold the blade at bay. Spike concentrated his energy behind one powerful surge and pushed against the blade with his baton, sending the man staggering back. _There's no choice, he's really trying to kill me_. Against his better judgment, Spike brought the baton around for another rib strike. The assailant deflected the blow with a sweep of his blade.

Quicker than Spike could react, the man closed the distance between the two of them, coming at Spike with short, quick slashes. The close range made it hard for Spike to move his baton fast enough to block-the man was using the length of Spike's weapon against him. Whoever he was, he was certainly no novice. Sparks flew as steel collided with steel, Spike's baton showing silver through the black where the pain was being scraped off. He had to do something, and soon; there wasn't enough space for him to maneuver his baton properly.

The man seemed to sense that Spike was distraught, for he began to put more force behind his attacks. These powerful attacks were slower, though, and allowed Spike a split second to react. As the man brought his blade in for another strike, Spike slid his left foot back, turning his body sideways. The man's strike missed, and Spike grabbed his assailant's blade hand by the wrist. Turning his body, Spike brought his knee up and into the man's stomach. He could almost hear the air rushing from his attacker's lungs. "I think it's best for you to give up now," Spike said through gritted teeth. The man replied by lunging forward and biting the arm Spike was using to subdue him. The boy cried out in pain, and against all instinct let go of the man's hand.

That was all the time the assailant needed.

Spike felt a sharp pain in his back as his attacker's blade found it's mark. _Shit, I fucked up_ the boy thought to himself. He tried to bring his baton around for another strike, but the man had used his free hand to grab the weapon. With one hard tug he managed to break it from Spike's grip. He tossed it out of reach. _How can he possibly move like that after having the wind knocked out of him? _Spike thought to himself. The pain in his back was unbearable, and made it impossible for him to focus his thoughts. It felt as if the strength was leaving his body; he began to fall to his knees. He had to do something, though, or he would die, and Twilight... Twilight...

"Ya put up a good fight, kid, but it's over now. Almost a shame I gotta kill ya, but yer one o' the queen's dogs after all." He raised the knife high above his head, and Spike knew the next blow would be the last thing he ever felt. _Hopefully Twilight at least got herself out of here_ he thought to himself, closing his eyes. He couldn't bear to watch his own death come down on him.

There was a loud scream, followed by a sick crunching sound, and then more screaming. Spike opened his eyes to find Twilight standing over him, his assailant on the ground. The man's arm was bent at an odd angle, the bone protruding from the inside of his elbow. "Wh-what the?" he stammered. He could feel the warmth of his blood as it ran down his back. Was he seeing things? Had the pain caused him to hallucinate? Twilight turned and offered him her hand, and he accepted.

"I-I don't get it," he said, dumbfounded. Twilight let out something akin to a laugh.

"I used to read a lot of self defense books. I guess some of it stuck. It doesn't hurt that he was distracted either," she explained.

Spike closed his eyes and laughed at himself. "How do you like that? The bodyguard saved by the one he's supposed to be guarding." He let out a sharp gasp as pain rippled through his back.

Twilight shook her head. "You did great, Spike. Actually, after what I saw in the hallway a while back, I was surprised that you could fight at all. No offense." Despite her calm nature, Spike could tell Twilight was shaken up. Her hands were trembling, and she kept glancing at his wound. After a moment, she kneeled down and threw her arm around him, providing him with enough support to stand despite the pain.

"None taken," Spike responded. He shifted his weight and, with Twilight's help, rose to his feet. "I had more fight training with that baton than anything, and even that was sparse. I think it was mostly an instinct to survive that helped me keep up with him." He winced as another bolt of pain shot up his back. Twilight guided him to a booth, where he laid out on his stomach. He wasn't sure how deep in the knife had actually went, but it didn't really matter-all that mattered was that it hurt. Someone's hands began to lift his shirt up. Spike began to protest, until he realized it was Twilight.

"It's alright, Spike, I just want to have a look at it." She fell silent for a moment as she inspected the wound. Finally, after enough silence to make Spike more than a little concerned, she replied, "Well, you'll definitely need stitches, but it's not bleeding as badly as I thought." Spike didn't reply. Something about the tone in Twilight's voice soothed him. There was concern, to be sure, but there was also a certain level of calmness that re-assured him that he would ultimately be okay.

They didn't speak again until the police and paramedics arrived. Naturally they had to ask the usual questions; Spike was just glad they did it in the ambulance, where he was being given the pleasurable relief of pain killers. There was a lot of fuss made about the fact that he had been carrying a steel baton-at least until he managed to extract his wallet from his pocket and flash it open. Inside was his card identifying him as a member of the royal palace's staff. That seemed to reduce the questions to a simple series of events. Despite his clearance, though, they still insisted on confiscating the baton as evidence. "Take it," Spike finally spat. "You guys could have at least let them sew me up before you badgered me with your questions."

The officers seemed quite taken aback by his sudden snippiness, but they didn't come back with any sort of reply. He was glad for that; the energy to argue was far removed from him. _This is the longest ambulance trip I've ever been on _he thought. _Actually, this is the first ambulance trip I've ever been on._ That thought amused him, though whether that amusement was genuine or simply the result of the pain medicine taking its hold on his mind he couldn't say. All he knew was that he had never been happy to see the words "Emergency" lit up in neon lights.

Several hours later, Spike and Twilight were exiting the back of a police car and making their way through the gates of Perryville Academy. Upon arriving at the hospital, Spike had been seen almost immediately, but they had taken a while to actually get him stitched up. Apparently the blade had gone several inches into his back; fortunately, the angle of the strike caused it to miss anything important. Still, the doctors had insisted on keeping him overnight. Naturally he had refused. Guests weren't allowed overnight, which meant Twilight would have had to go back to the dorms alone, and he wasn't about to let that happen, not after a botched kidnapping. He declined to stay and simply accepted his pain medicine and the police escort.

"Are you sure it was okay to refuse the overnight stay?" Twilight asked as they made their way along the pathway to the library. Spike nodded.

"Yeah, it's more important for me to be here. Besides, if my health was in any danger I doubt they would have given me a choice in the matter. "Either way I'd be in pain. Might as well be in pain from the comfort of my own room." He felt a sense of depression wash over him. "Still, I failed to protect you. What kind of bodyguard am I? The useless kind, that's what." Beside him, Twilight shook her head.

"That's not true. You held your own in that fight. That man was much older than you, not to mention bigger and probably more experienced at fighting. You did good."

"Yeah, but what if you hadn't read those books? What if you weren't so lucky? Then you'd be injured too. You should have never had to help out like that!" Spike protested. Twilight simply shrugged her shoulders.

"I hate to break it to you Spike, but we aren't living in medieval times. Girls aren't these dainty little things that need protecting. We can be just as strong as you guys, especially when we have something important to protect."

They reached the library doors which, unsurprisingly, were locked. This was of little concern to either of them; they both had a key to the grand double doors. Twilight did the honors of unlocking the door and opening it, allowing Spike to enter ahead of her. She entered and closed the door behind her, locking it as she did.

The interior of the library was dimly lit by the back-up lights that were kept on at night. It was just enough for the two companions to make their way to the back of the library without tripping and hurting themselves-or, in Spike's case, hurting himself more. When they reached his door, Spike pulled out his key and unlocked it, turning the lights on as he opened it. He gestured for Twilight to follow him inside. The clock on his night stand read 2:13 a.m.

"Is there anything I can do for you?" Twilight asked as she surveyed Spike's room. The boy shook his head.

"Nah, I should be fine. It's not like they bound my arm up in a sling or anything. I have my pain meds and my bed. That's all I'll need for now." He picked up the large book on his bed and flopped down, wincing as pain shot through his back. _Keep that in mind the next time you want to throw your body around _he told himself. He watched as Twilight shifted uncomfortably.

"Well, in that case, I'm going to head up to my room. I'm utterly exhausted. Good night." She turned and began to open the door. As she did, though, Spike got an idea.

"Hey Twilight!" he called. As she began to turn, he lifted the book that was in his hand and hurled it straight at her head. "Catch!"

Twilight's eyes widened in fear as she watched the book come flying at her. She threw her hands up to guard her face, bracing herself for the impact, but it never came. After several seconds she lowered her arms to see what was happening.

The book was floating in midair.

**End of chapter notes: **Well, this chapter was certainly a long time coming. I hope you all enjoyed it! It's definitely the longest chapter in this fic so far (and will probably be the longest chapter, period). There were a lot of events I wanted to cover. Hopefully I've met your expectations for something "big" to happen. Spike fighting with a man who is talking about Twilight's "magic" and then the return of Twilight's levitation seem like big events to me, so hopefully you folks will share my sentiment.

A few thoughts: some might say that it's unrealistic for Spike to be allowed to go home after being stabbed. I'd have to disagree. When I was in high school a friend of mine was stabbed in the stomach by some would-be robbers he found in his house. They used a steak knife, and it went a good bit into him. The hospital stitched him up, confirmed that there were no vital organs injured, and sent him home with pain meds. I imagined Spike's injury to be similar in nature, just to the back instead of the stomach.

Also, Twilight's sudden ability to defend herself: I think she defends that well enough within the chapter. I've seen many girls and women in my life who, while seemingly "weak" or "frail" on the surface, have done amazing things to protect the ones they love. My fiancée is a shining example of this. If you were to look at her, you'd think she was this timid, quiet woman, but she got me out of some serious trouble back in high school. I'd gotten into a verbal argument with this group of guys, and it turned physical between myself and one of them. As I was fighting the guy, one of his buddies started to come over to jump into the fight. My fiancée laid him out (obviously we weren't engaged at the time, though). Never underestimate anyone, because even the seemingly weakest person can demonstrate feats of amazing strength under the right circumstances.

And if that's still not enough of a reason for you, well, there is something else behind Twilight's ability. You'll have to wait and see what that is, though. As always, you can find information on my blog: .com. I'll probably make a post explaining the long delay in getting this chapter done, so if you're curious, feel free to check it out.


	9. Heal Me

**Chapter 9: Heal Me**

This chapter is dedicated to my friend and fellow Coheed and Cambria addict Joel "Woff" Fletcher. It was an honor and a privilege to know you, Joel. Rest in peace, my friend.

Thank you to my pre-readers for always helping me out.

Twilight stared in disbelief as the book hovered inches from her face, bobbing slowly up and down in midair. She wanted to scream, to say something, to simply react, but instead she just stared, her mind a blank slate incapable of processing what she was seeing. Every logical process in her brain failed to explain what was occurring in front of her face, and it felt as if her mind had simply given up on any hope of an explanation. She could feel her heart beat quickening. Her breaths started to come in short, quick spurts, and her head began to spin. If she continued down this path she was sure to hyperventilate. That was one thing of which her mind seemed sure. It was what she needed, though: one concrete thought to stabilize her mental processes.

She began forcing herself to calm down, collecting her thoughts as best she could. As she did, she began to recall details of this same phenomenon occurring once before, and she could feel her mind beginning to switch over to rationalization mode. _Alright Twilight, you know this is impossible. Spike's obviously playing some kind of prank on you_. But how? That was the question. _Maybe with some sort of string?_ She raised her hands and moved them through the air around the book, covering every possible angle. There was nothing to be found. While the rational part of her mind reeled at the thought that the book was actually floating by some telekinetic force, another part of her mind began to accept it. After all, this wasn't the first time this had happened, and she had been alone that first time. Well, Rainbow Dash had walked in during the event in question, but there was no way she could have manipulated the book. On top of that, her friends had all been experiencing some strange events over the past several weeks. Pinkie Pie and Rainbow Dash had both shown signs of similar delusions, and Rainbow Dash also had the unexplained increase in speed. Then there was Fluttershy's outburst in response to Pinkie's description of some unseen door. That meant that four of the six friends had experienced some inexplicable phenomenon. Despite her best efforts, Twilight's rationality slowly began to admit defeat in the face of the surmounting evidence.

She looked away from the book and focused on Spike. He was still sitting up in bed, his eyes fixated on her. It was almost as if he was studying her, like a zoologist studies an animal in a cage, waiting to see how she'd respond to this abnormality. The problem was that she didn't know how to react. Part of her wanted to burst out in anger. Spike threw the book at her, so he must have known-or at least suspected-that this would be the outcome. He was her bodyguard, after all, so it didn't make sense that he'd do something to harm her. Another part of her wanted to break down into tears. None of this made sense, and she had no explanation for it. The whole situation was overwhelming, to say the least, and she had only managed to main strong through all of it because her life had remained fairly normal. The first incident of supposed telekinesis could easily be explained away by exhaustion, after all. Then there was a third part of her that was completely fascinated by the floating book. That part of her ached to study this untapped power, to see just how far it could go. _Imagine all of the things you could do _it whispered seductively. _This would be the scientific find of a lifetime. Your name would go down in the history books. _She shook her head to clear the thoughts before they became too tempting. While that scenario was certainly plausible, it was equally likely that she would be locked up in some room and experimented on for the rest of her life. That simply wasn't acceptable.

The prolonged silence began to press on her mind, making it harder to think. Why wasn't Spike saying anything? Why was he just staring at her? She was going to go crazy if one of them didn't say something. But what could she say in a moment like this? Nothing that came to mind really seemed sane. Though she wracked her brain for something more intelligent, all she finally managed to utter was, "Spike... what... what is this?"

"A floating novel of epic proportions," Spike replied with a smile, making it all too clear that he was enjoying the situation. That infuriated Twilight. She could feel her anger rising inside the pit of her stomach, growing like a wild fire. He had to know something, and yet he was treating it like a game! As her rage began to boil over, she began to lose control of her emotions.

"Why are you treating this like a joke? This situation has been driving us all crazy! You obviously know something, so spill it! What's going on here?" She shouted, throwing her hands up in the air out of frustration. While she typically liked to remain calm and collected, she just couldn't hold back anymore. Her anger continued to grow as Spike continued to remain silent. She raised a finger and pointed it at him. "Say something Spike!"

Before Twilight could even react, the book that had floated idly in front of her face began to zoom across the room, headed straight for Spike. If the boy was at all startled by this event he didn't show it, but rather reached into the air and plucked the book down, tossing it onto the bed. Somewhere in her mind Twilight felt something break, some kind of connection that she hadn't even realized was there. It was all too clear that it was whatever had bound her mind to that book. As fast as it came her anger subsided, and she suddenly felt weak. She collapsed to the floor and buried her face in her hands, her hair falling down to shield her as the tears began to flow. "None of this makes any sense," she sobbed.

Spike's hand on her shoulder made her look up. In his other hand he held a tissue, which he used to gently mop the tears from her eyes. "I'm sorry for toying with you, but I needed to spur that reaction." He handed her the tissue and then walked over to his desk, opening one of the many drawers on its face. From within he extracted a large stack of envelopes tied together by a single string. "These are all of the letters you wrote to the queen concerning the recent events. She felt it pertinent that I be brought up to speed on the situation, and she asks for your forgiveness on divulging the information." Spike was speaking differently than Twilight was used to. His voice lacked the laid-back air that she was used to. He now sounded as if he were talking to a business partner instead of a friend. The feeling that he knew more than what was in those letters kept gnawing at her stomach.

"What else do you know?" she asked, the question coming out much more bluntly than she had intended. In truth, she didn't expect him to tell her anything. He had refrained from telling her anything up until this point, so why would anything be different now? She watched him intently as he seemed to consider her question, his eyes drifting around his room in what she assumed was some process of thought. Finally, after what felt like an eternity, he walked back to her and kneeled down, looking her straight in the eyes. From this distance she could see the tiny flecks of gold in his green eyes, a minute detail she had failed to previously notice.

"All I know is what I've read... and what I've seen," he explained, his voice low. "You broke a man's arm tonight, on instinct alone. I figured this telekinesis or whatever it is might also be an instinctual ability." He shrugged his shoulders, as if to dismiss the situation. Twilight felt another wave of anger wash over her.

"So you threw a book at me over a hunch? What if you were wrong, and it would have hit me? What kind of bodyguard does that?" she yelled at him, her eyes locking onto his, searching for some unspoken sign. Spike simply shrugged again and then made a gesture towards himself.

"I would have given you as many free shots as you needed, but I had a hunch that I would be right." He rose to his feet and clearly winced, most likely from the wound on his back. "Besides," he continued, "a scientist like yourself should appreciate the need to take risks in order to make discoveries. Or is it only okay to take risks when you're personal safety is guaranteed?"

Twilight opened her mouth to respond, but found that she couldn't think of anything that felt like a proper rebuttal. Spike was right-scientific discoveries did often require some level of risk. At the same time, though, most scientists would be wont to keep themselves from any risk of personal danger. She wanted to say that, but the hypocrisy of the statement sat in the back of her throat, leaving a vile taste in her mouth. The fact of the matter was that she hoped to work as a scientific researcher one day, and that meant that she may very well have to put someone else at risk for the sake of discovery, just as Spike had done only moments before. _I guess he has learned something, after all _she thought to herself. In truth, the risks of a real scientific experiment would have been much greater than the bump on the head that Spike had risked giving her, as well. Finally, after what felt like an eternity of silence, she replied with, "I hate to admit it, but you have a point." Under her breath she added, "It was still a stupid thing to do from a bodyguard's perspective, though." If Spike caught her little addition, he didn't make any indication of it as he moved back to his bed and began examining his book.

"So what do we do now?" Twilight found herself asking.

Spike looked up at her curiously but didn't respond. He began to chew on his lip thoughtfully, no doubt contemplating what would be the best answer. After a moment, he said, "We don't do anything. The decision is up to you. You can continue to ignore this ability of yours or you can explore it and try to harness it. If I know you, you'll choose the second option. Just do yourself a favor and keep this between the two of us."

Twilight didn't need to ask why there was a need for secrecy. She had already seen her friends' reactions to the other strange phenomena that had occurred, and it had been less than favorable. The need for caution was clear, even as her mind began to cloud itself with a mixture of fear and excitement. On the one hand, she was afraid of what this meant. Had everything she'd known up until this point been a lie? Had the idea of psychics, telekinetics, and maybe even magicians-who were for so long debunked by the science that she loved-been real all this time? Or was she some sort of twisted mutation that shouldn't exist? On the other hand, this was a completely new discovery. She was living proof that the very things science denounced as cult fiction actually existed, at least to some extent. Life could become a lot easier if she mastered this ability. _I could certainly carry more books; after all, my mind is much stronger than my arms_ she thought to herself with an approving nod. Yes, she would experiment with this new discovery like any true scientist would, and maybe one day she would be brave enough to present her findings to the world. Then she would inevitably become a world renowned scientist, with all of the greats seeking to collaborate with her. Gone already were here earlier fears of experimentation, replaced with visions of scientific splendor and grandeur. Her mind continued to delve further and further into speculative fantasy until a woman's loud, wailing singing pulled her from her thoughts.

_"I want your love, and I want your revenge..." _was all she heard before the noise stopped, but it was enough to pull her from her fantasies. It took a moment for her to realize that the music was coming from Spike's cell phone, which the boy now held in his hands, a tint of red spreading across his face. _That's the queen's favorite song _Twilight thought to herself, waiting for Spike to answer the phone.

He seemed to pick up on her intentions, for he looked at her and asked, "I don't want to be rude, but would you mind heading back to your room Twilight? This is going to be sort of a private call."

Spike's sudden bout of secrecy only served to further pique Twilight's interest, causing her curiosity to war with her desire to explore her ability. After several seconds of intense mental struggle her scientific desires won out and she bid Spike good night, leaving the room as he answered the call. With a spring in her step she made her way up the staircase and through the door to her room, locking it behind her. She had no intentions of going to sleep until she figured out how to work this new ability of hers, and she certainly didn't want any distractions.

"It's experiment time!" she exclaimed to herself.

**Sometime later...**

Something was pounding. Twilight couldn't put her finger on what it was, but she could definitely hear the pounding from somewhere outside of the darkness. Her mind swam through ideas, trying to place where she had heard that sound before. Could it be a drum? No, it was too monotonous and dull for that. Perhaps somebody dropped something? But then why would it be continuously repeating? She quickly ruled out that idea, as well. Whatever the noise was, it wouldn't stop, and she found herself vowing vengeance on whoever was causing the ruckus.

As the pounding continued, she found the darkness receding. Slowly but surely light began to flood into her eyes, first as a small dot, then as a thin crack, until finally her eyes were open and she stared groggily around her bedroom. The place was an absolute mess. Books were scattered all over the floor, drawers were hanging out of her dresser and desk, and her sheets had been ripped from her bed and tangled up. She couldn't remember what happened; all she knew was that her head was killing her, and that that incessant pounding was driving her crazy. As her mind began to focus a little more, she finally realized that the noise was coming from her bedroom door. She stood up from her desk chair, stumbled, and caught herself on the edge of the desk. Whatever she had done had obviously drained her. Her mind seemed intent on holding that information from her, though.

She reached the door, unlocked it, and threw it open, ready to throttle whoever was on the other side, but found her temper diminished when she saw Spike standing on the other side, his toiletry carrier in hand. Confused, she asked, "What are you doing here, Spike?"

The boy cocked an eyebrow at her and slowly responded, "It's 6:00 a.m. Monday morning. I always come up here before school to take a shower at this time." He paused and began to study her face, his eyes darting across her features for any information. When that didn't turn up any results, he looked past her and into the bedroom. Those narrow, intense eyes quickly widened as he exclaimed, "Holy crap, Twilight? What the hell kind of experiment were you doing?"

Twilight tried to focus her mind so that she could make sense of what Spike was saying, but her head felt like it was ready to burst. All she could manage to do was ask, "Experiment?"

Again Spike cocked his eyebrow at her. "I came up here to check on you yesterday and you told me, quite angrily, 'Go away! You're interrupting my experiment!'"

As Spike finished his explanation, Twilight found her mind suddenly exploding with images, as if someone had pulled the trigger on a gun containing her memories. She saw herself focusing on any object she could, concentrating until she could will it to rise and come to her with only her mind. At first the items would only slightly rise from their locations, but the more she tried, the further they would move. Eventually she had moved on to moving larger objects, such as her television stand, which she had managed to scoot several inches. The more practiced the more she was able to move, but at some point things had started to go wrong. _What was it? _she thought, straining her mind to finish putting together the memories.

Various items had begun to swirl around her, moving from the power of her mind but not of her own will. _Yes, that's right, I started to lose control _she found herself thinking as she began to recall the incident in even more detail. Drawers were slamming in and out, clothes spewed from her dresser, and her mattress rose and fell, the sheets tossed from it. She had tried to control it, but the more she tried the worse the situation got. The last thing she remembered was something crashing into her head, followed by Spike's noisy wake-up call. _Well, that explains the headache _she thought to herself. To Spike, she finally said, "It seems things got a bit out of hand. I guess I pushed myself too hard."

"How long did you practice?" Spike asked, his tone a mixture of concern and curiosity.

Twilight had to think for a moment before answering. "Well, it was about 2:30 in the morning when I left your room... what time did you come up to check on me yesterday?"

The look in Spike's eyes already told her that the answer was going to be absurd. "I came up here around two in the afternoon after finally waking up. Those pain pills put me out cold. You yelled at me to go away, so I went and took care of the book filing for you."

Twilight had wondered how Spike had missed the noise she had apparently been making, but the pain pills seemed to provide that explanation for her. The headache was making another round of assaults on her, and she found herself grabbing at her temples. She needed some aspirin. "Well, come on in and take your shower. There's no point in me holding you up anymore," she commented as she turned and walked back to her desk. She began digging through the drawers hanging from the desk until she found a small white bottle buried under a mess of pencils, pens, and sticky notes. Grateful for the ensuing relief the medicine would bring, she said a prayer to whatever deities may be listening and turned to ask Spike for a glass of water. She found him staring at something on the floor. "Is everything okay, Spike?"

The boy turned his head and looked at her with a small smile. "I have to say, I'm kind of surprised that you'd have something like that," he replied, pointing at something on her floor. Puzzled, Twilight followed the direction of Spike's finger to find that he was pointing to a small, raggedy stuffed horse that was lying on her floor. With a small wave of embarrassment she stood and retrieved it, along with the pair of underwear beneath it. Thankfully it seemed that Spike hadn't noticed that second detail.

"There's nothing wrong with me having this," Twilight said defensively, cradling the toy against her chest. "You have that stuffed dog sitting on your desk, so I don't really think you have any room to make fun of anyone with a stuffed animal."

Spike shrugged in return. "I never said there was anything wrong with it, just that I was surprised. You didn't seem like the stuffed animal type. So sue me."

_Way to over-react, Twilight _she thought to herself as she watched Spike turn his back on her and head into the bathroom. Only the surge of pain that shot through her head reminded her of the two aspirin she held in her hand, and she quickly intercepted Spike for her glass of water. The boy complied with her request, filling the lone glass that she kept on the bathroom counter and handing it to her. After tossing back the medicine and downing the water, she handed the glass back to Spike, who closed the door and went about his business. She began to straighten up her room as she heard the shower kick on.

**School**

"So anyway, the meet's this Thursday afternoon at five. You all better be there to root me on!" Rainbow Dash finished, the excitement clear in her voice. Spike had only been half-listening the entire time, so he wasn't exactly sure what was said before that, but he knew it had something to do with Dash competing in a big track meet against their school's largest rival.

"Where's this at, again?" he found himself asking, looking up from the book he had been staring at. All six girls looked at him with annoyed, knowing glares that made him feel like a child about to be disciplined by his parents.

"I just told you, it's going to be in the gym. The temperature's been dropping too much for us to have it outside," Dash explained. She reached out and lightly smacked Spike in the side of the head. "Pay attention next time."

Spike played along and rubbed the spot where Dash had pretended to whack him. He couldn't help but feel a bit guilty, though. While he was happy that Dash would get to compete in such a big meet, he found it hard to have any real enthusiasm for the news. He just had no interest in sports whatsoever. While there was no doubt that he would be there-Twilight wasn't about to miss an opportunity to support her friend, and wherever Twilight went Spike had to follow-he wasn't exactly happy about it. On top of his dislike for all things sports was the fact that a track meet inevitably meant a large crowd of people, some of whom would inevitably outsiders there to support the other team. The idea of that many unknown people coming into the school made him nervous, especially after the events from two nights ago. There was no doubt now that Shame on the Night had members in Perryville, and this would be a perfect opportunity for those type of people to slip in. He grimaced as a twang of pain shot through his back. If anything did happen, that injury was sure to slow him down. Voicing these concerns wasn't an option, either; at least not here. Twilight had asked that he keep the events from the coffee shop a secret from their group of friends. Thus far, it hadn't appeared in any newspapers or news programs, either, which made him wonder how much damage control the queen's camp was doing.

He glanced over at Twilight, who was listening to the rest of the girls recap their weekends. His stomach gave a slight flutter, catching him off guard. _What was that about?_ he wondered. Was he seeing her in a new light? There was definitely something different about the way Twilight looked to him. She seemed more attractive now, more interesting. _When did that start, anyway? _he asked himself. The answer seemed to be at the hospital, where Twilight had finally broken down and began crying. She had hugged him and apologized over and over for the injury, even though he had only done what the situation dictated. It had been a long time since someone had ever shown any real affection for him, and it had changed something inside of him. Maybe it was just that-he felt grateful that someone actually cared. The fact that he was so out of touch with his own feelings began to bother him; after all, he had known how he felt about Rarity without all of this turmoil. _But then she turned you down_ he told himself. _You're just screwed up in the head right now. You're either looking for someone to latch onto, or you're too disheveled to make heads and tails of what you actually want. _He wasn't sure where that particular nugget of wisdom had come from, but it seemed to make sense.

The sound of the morning bell pulled him from his thoughts, its high-pitched shriek as annoying as ever. With a resigned sigh, he joined his six friends as they joined the throng flooding into their classroom.

**After School**

Rainbow Dash cleared another hurdle, resuming her run as soon as her feet hit the ground. It had been a long school day, and it felt good to unwind by doing what she loved. The cool autumn air blew through her hair as she ran, cooling the beads of sweat that began to trickle down her thin, long face. Her hair streamed behind her as she ran, creating a dazzling effect as the sunlight reflected off of its many colors. Once upon a time she would have pulled her hair back in an attempt to increase her speed, but these days it seemed like her speed was already at a supernatural pace, so pulling her hair back just seemed pointless now.

As she neared the finish line she glanced back over her shoulder. Only a small handful of the club members had joined her on the outdoor track, and they were all well behind her. A rumor had apparently arisen concerning Rainbow Dash's speed-namely that it was the result of her practicing outside no matter the weather-and as a result she had gained a small following during her practice sessions. In truth, she just enjoyed the fresh air enough to ignore the chill and gooseflesh across her skin.

She crossed the finish line and immediately halted the stopwatch she held in her hand. A downward glance revealed that she had run a complete circuit in forty seconds. She shook her head and walked to the sidelines, where she retrieved her water bottle and took a long drink. If she hadn't looked at the number in her own hand, she never would have believed it. The whole situation was just too unreal, especially because it didn't even feel like she was running that fast. No matter how many times she did this, though, she always received the same result, even with different stop watches. Nobody had been able to come up with a reasonable explanation for her inhuman speed-not her teammates, not her coach, not the nurse... not even Twilight, and she seemed to know everything! One part of Dash's mind rejoiced at her new-found abilities; it would certainly make winning the upcoming meet a lot easier. The other part of her mind felt guilty, though. After all, there was no way anyone could keep up with that, and she couldn't help but feel like she was somehow cheating.

Her team mates began to cross the finish line as she continued to contemplate her situation. While she didn't pay too much attention to the order in which they crossed, she did note that the first one across the line was a freshman by the name of Megan. A short, flat-chested girl with shoulder-length brown hair, Megan had only joined the team a few weeks prior, but she was already showing promise. Dash watched Megan leave the track and head in her direction, no doubt coming to retrieve her own water bottle.

"You did good," Dash commented as she watched Megan drink. The younger girl shot her a look that was half shock and half annoyance.

"That's easy for you to say, Rachel... I mean, Rainbow Dash. You're like some kind of machine. I've never seen anyone run that fast before." She took another drink from her bottle and then retrieved a towel from the small gym bag near her feet. As she wiped the sweat from her brow, she continued, "So is it true? Did you get fast from running in all kinds of weather?"

Dash couldn't help but laugh. So far, she had only heard the rumor through the grapevine; this was the first time that someone had mentioned it to her face. She shook her head and wiped a tear from her eye. "I don't know who started that rumor, but somehow I doubt it's true. I have no idea how I got so fast... it just sort of happened one day a couple weeks ago. No one can explain it, and to be quite honest it freaks me out, but what can I really do? I love being on the track team, so it's not an option to stop running." She shrugged her shoulders and glanced at Megan, who seemed to be studying her face intently, no doubt trying to read her expressions. After a moment, she began to speak again. "Look, you made good time today. You beat several of our more seasoned members, and I'm willing to bet you haven't practiced in chilly weather like this much. Most coaches are really strict and require their members to move in doors when it starts to get like this. Ours gives us the freedom to choose, thankfully."

Megan uttered an annoyed groan. "Look, I get it, you don't want to share your secrets. That's fine. But don't act like you don't know. People don't just suddenly get speed boosts." The younger girl groaned again, snatched her gym bag, and marched away from the track, leaving Dash alone.

Sighing, Rainbow Dash walked to the bleachers lining the track and took a seat. She sat there and watched the rest of her team mates continue to practice, and continued to sit there even after they had gone, lost in thought. She wanted to be mad at the fact that so many people refused to believe her explanation, but the truth of the matter was that she understood where they were coming from. It was hard to believe herself. Of course, her boosted speed had earned her the top position in the upcoming race, which didn't help things at all. _Maybe I should just resign _she thought to herself. _Then someone else can have the opportunity, and the eyes can finally get off of me_. She chewed her lip and considered the option. It certainly seemed like the best way to save face. As she did, though, another voice seemed to pop into her mind.

_So you're just going to walk away? _it said. _People are jealous of you because you're better than them. That's never going to change. You want to be in the Olympics? Well you better toughen up first! You'll never get there if you keep giving up opportunities just to spare someone else's feelings! _Dash found that liked the way this other part of her divided conscience was thinking. People were always going to be jealous of those who outperformed them, so why should she sacrifice her own happiness to appease them? It felt a bit harsh to think that way, but she had grand dreams, and to achieve them she would inevitably have to outperform other people. A harsh reality to accept, but a reality nonetheless.

With a renewed sense of vigor, Rainbow Dash rose from the bleachers and began running more laps around the track, the sun dipping to the horizon behind her.

**The Track Meet**

Thursday. The day of the meet. The gymnasium was packed with students, and the sound of their voices was deafening. Even the cheerleaders were having a hard time being heard over the voices. Twilight thought it weird to have cheerleaders performing at a track meet, but then again she didn't know much about the subject, either. While she had read about sports in the past, they weren't exactly her favorite subject. The only reason she was even here was to support Rainbow Dash. At present, she was keeping the runner company on the sidelines along with Spike, who looked like he was trying out for a cheesy spy b-movie in his black ensemble and dark sunglasses. She didn't bother to guess his motivation, though she was relieved that the gymnasium at least provided an excuse for him to wear the sunglasses.

She glanced up at the ceiling, only to be met with a blast of sunlight to the face. While most of the ceiling was solid, the center was comprised of glass panels to allow natural sunlight into the gymnasium. The panels ran three wide for the length of the ceiling, allowing a substantial amount of light in-so much so that the school currently had the electrical lights turned off. It was a green initiative, and a fairly effective one at that. Spike, of course, had voiced concern about that design decision while they were shelving books a few days prior. He had envisioned swarms of terrorists swooping through the glass and descending only long enough to grab kidnap her. Twilight had laughed at the notion, thinking and hoping that Spike was joking. Judging by the deadpan look he had given her combined with his current attire, though, she had thought wrong. She shook her head to clear her mind. If this is what it took to make Spike feel secure, then so be it; who was she to stand in the way? After dispersing those thoughts, she began to survey the gymnasium, as she was very rarely in the building.

It had been designed to host several different events. There were basketball hoops at either end of the building, though they were currently raised up via a mechanism on the wall. The floor of the building contained a number of different markings. Of course there were the obvious track lines, but in addition there were basketball boundaries along with other markings she didn't quite recognize. The school's emblem stared back at her from every wall, and even from the center of the floor. The whole scene was quite remarkable. Or maybe not. Twilight Sparkle knew a lot of things, but gymnasiums were one of the few things of which she lacked sufficient knowledge. She was pulled from her deliberation by a low groan from Rainbow Dash.

"Is everything okay?" Twilight asked, turning to look at her friend. Dash shook her head.

"No. Gilda is here." When Twilight's confused look made it clear that she didn't know to whom Dash was referring, she continued, "She's a runner from LaGuardia Academy. Well, I guess that much was obvious. We've competed against each other several times. Apparently she's into girls, and she always hits on me thanks to the rumor that I also swing that way. It's really frustrating." Rainbow Dash pointed to indicate a short, lean girl with short spiky hair who was currently making a practice round on the course. "I have nothing against her personally, but the constant advances get annoying, especially when I've already told her I'm not that way."

Twilight wanted to say something, but she found that she was at a loss for words. Finally, after fumbling around for something to say, she said, "Well, at least you only have to put up with it on rare occasions." The look on Dash's face made it clear that she wasn't comforted in the slightest by that statement. An uneasy silence settled between the two. Finally, after what seemed like eons, Dash finally spoke again.

"Well, I need to go warm up. Make sure you cheer loudly for me. And get off that damn phone, Spike!" She jogged out to the gymnasium floor, waving to them over her shoulder.

Twilight waved back, although she knew Dash wouldn't see, and then turned to Spike, who seemed to be staring intently at the screen of his phone. "I guess you got bored of playing the vigilant watchdog," she teased, moving over to stand beside him. He looked up at her with gaze that instantly killed her good mood.

"Shame on the Night's been active again. There were two attacks within moments of each other. One was in LaGuardia, which is only forty miles from here, but the other was in Springston, which is almost two hundred miles away," he explained, holding the phone up as if to provide evidence for his statements. Twilight felt her mouth start to go dry.

"This is getting out of hand. These people need to be caught," she commented as her eyes scanned the bit of text on the phone screen. One bit in particular seemed to catch her attention. "Wait, it says that eyewitnesses at both locations described the same group of men. How is that possible?"

Spike pulled the phone away and holstered it on his hip. "That's why I'm concerned," he stated. "There's always the possibility of mistaken identity, but I can't accept that when multiple witnesses at both scenes described the same five men."

"So what, you think they have some kind of teleportation ability?"

"I'm not willing to rule anything out at this point, Ms. Telekinetic" Spike replied. He paused and surveyed the area around them before continuing. "The good news is that they're less likely to try anything here today. Police and military forces will be on high alert after two high profile attacks." It seemed to Twilight that Spike's shoulders relaxed as he vocalized this realization. She felt relief wash over her, not only for the fact that they seemed to be safe for the moment, but also for the fact that Spike was finally off edge. It was horrible to think that there were people hurt, but she couldn't even fathom the idea of something happening to one of her friends. If she had to choose she'd rather see her friends safe. Hesitantly, she raised her arm and put it around Spike's shoulder, causing him to jump.

"Relax Spike. It's not good for someone your age to be so stressed all the time. Look, the track events are about to start."

Spike seemed to regard her for a moment, his eyes staring intently at her face. After that moment passed, though, his face seemed to relax and a small smile played at his lips. "Yeah, I guess you're right," he responded.

The Perryville side of the gymnasium erupted in cheers as their team brought home yet another victory. While Perryville definitely seemed to be the favorite to win, LaGuardia was putting up a decent fight. Perhaps that would have been different if Rainbow Dash were in every race, but from what Spike had been told the coach had wanted to give some of the younger runners a chance. Still, Perryville was leading by two points, and the next race-the relay-was the last. If Perryville won that, then it would be their win, and Rainbow Dash was holding the anchor position. There was no way they could lose.

Spike glanced over at Twilight, who was standing to his left, clapping vigorously. He never thought he would see her get excited over a sporting event, but it seemed that friendship could drive people to do the unexpected. Still, it was nice to see her looking happy about something besides studying for once; in fact, it was kind of cute. His eyes moved from her to the surrounding area. While the threat of attack had certainly dwindled, he couldn't entirely relax. There was always the possibility that Shame would try to come after Twilight again. The good news was that they seemed to want her alive, so he just had to keep an eye out for suspicious individuals who were headed for Twilight. In an ideal world he would be able to protect everyone in the gym, but the world was far from ideal and Twilight was his mission. More importantly, she was his friend. The area seemed to be clear, so he turned his attention back to the track, where the runners were setting up for the relay. Something seemed different about the gym now, and it took Spike a second to realize that the interior lights had been turned on, albeit dimly. He glanced up at the paneled ceiling, surprised to see the orange and pink hues of sunset. _Have we really been here that long? _he thought.

He was about to return his attention to the runners when something caught his eye. Among the pink and orange clouds there seemed to be a thin black line. Spike squinted at it, trying to figure out what it was. _A jet, maybe? _As he stared, though, the line seemed to widen, until it was as wide as a door's height. It's length seemed to extend well beyond the scope of the ceiling windows. His eyes widened as he stared at this black void that rent the sky. A thousand tiny lights seemed to dance within, all different colors. He thought he could make vague outlines of buildings and huts, but it was so far away he couldn't be sure. _Impossible _he thought. Another round of cheering erupted around him, startling him and causing him to tear his gaze from the celestial phenomenon. When he glanced back up, it was gone, but a look to his left made it clear that at least one other person had seen it. Wide-eyed, Twilight looked in his direction.

"I've never seen anything like that," she stated, her voice distant as though she were speaking more to herself than to him. "What about you?"

Spike shook his head. "Can't say I have." He wanted to say more, but was interrupted by Rainbow Dash.

"We won! Yes! Did you guys see that?" She was jogging in their direction, and then she was throwing her arms around them, jumping up and down with excitement. "You can't beat this feeling. Oh man, I'm so glad you guys could see this!"

Guilt gnawed at Spike's stomach as he realized that he had spent the entire race staring at the sky. With a nervous laugh he simply replied, "Y-yeah. I'm glad we got to see it."

Dash backed away from them and wiped sweat from her brow. "There's nothing like the excitement of competition, although it would have been nice if someone didn't darken the lighting during the relay." The tone in her voice was one of pure annoyance, but it confirmed a question Spike wanted to ask: Dash had been affected by the sky anomaly. He felt a vibration at his hip and immediately recognized it as his cell phone. A glance at the girls showed that they had become engrossed in their own conversation, so he took a few steps from them and answered the call.

"So I guess this means you saw it, too?" he asked.

"Yes, I did," the voice on the other end replied. It was heavily distorted, making it impossible to tell whether the caller was male or female. A necessary security measure, to be sure, but also one of Spike's greatest annoyances. He forced himself to swallow the comment he wanted to make about it.

"We're running out of time. If you needed anymore evidence, this is it. Continuing with your method won't provide the results we need in enough time. Let me implement the contingency plan," he said, trying to keep his voice level. He could tell that he was letting his emotions slip out some, though.

"That plan has a lot of risks. If even one thing goes wrong, we'll fail," the voice argued.

"If we continue to follow your path, we'll definitely fail," Spike countered. "I've explained what I know several times already. Put some trust in me, for once."

There was a long silence while the other party presumably considered Spike's words. It wasn't until the voice spoke again that Spike realized he had been holding his breath. "Fine, you can use your method, but if it fails you can consider your life forfeit."

"If we fail all of our lives are forfeit," Spike replied before hanging up the phone. He holstered it and glanced in Twilight's direction with a sigh. "I'm sorry for what I have to do, Twi," he muttered.

**Friday Afternoon**

Twilight descended the staircase from her room. Spike had requested that she, Applejack, Rainbow Dash, and Rarity meet him in his room at six p.m. It was still a little early, but all of her tasks were completed so she had decided to change and just wait for her friends with Spike. Her attire was fairly simple: a purple v-neck shirt and blue jeans with tennis shoes. Of course, she was also wearing her glasses. How could she forget those? She had to admit that the idea of having some genuine alone time with Spike excited her. While she still had no idea how Spike felt about her, and while she doubted that he had gotten over his heartbreak from Rarity that quickly, she couldn't help but indulge in her crush.

As she rounded the bottom step and headed for Spike's room, she noticed two things: one, his door was slightly ajar, and two, there was soft music emanating from the room. Curious, she approached the door and gently pushed it open just enough to squeeze her head in. As she peaked around the corner she saw Spike sitting at his desk, his back turned to the door. In his hands he held a black acoustic guitar, the source of the music. The tune was soft-almost hypnotizing-with a sound that struck her as an odd mix of happy and sad. He was muttering under his breath-the lyrics, she assumed-and she was able to just barely make out what he was saying: "The things I've done, the work I've seen, won't measure up to you my queen. And I'll take one for the other, and work my way through this machine". She felt herself being pulled in by it and began to zone out. As she did, she leaned forward on the door, pushing it further open and stumbling into the room. Spike quickly rose from his seat and turned, his guitar held in his left hand as a makeshift weapon. He seemed to relax when he realized it was just Twilight; he at least lowered the guitar.

"You know, most people usually know, or say something like, 'Hey, I'm here' before coming into someone's room," he said, a slight note of irritation in his voice.

Twilight blushed and replied, "W-well, the door was cracked, and I didn't want to interrupt you. That song sounded beautiful."

Spike tossed the guitar onto his bed and sat back down at his desk, turning in his chair to look at Twilight. "That sounded like crap. I still can't play that song right."

"Say what you want. I thought it sounded good. The lyrics sounded really good. Did you write that yourself?"

"So you heard that, huh? Well, I didn't write it. It's a cover. I'm trying to get good enough at singing and playing, so I was just muttering the to words get used to doing both simultaneously. The song's called _Iron Fist_." His tone was rough. Whether it was irritation, embarrassment, or a combination of the two, Twilight couldn't quite say. All she knew was that this wasn't how she envisioned things going.

"So, um... you were finger picking that, right?" she asked, trying to keep up the conversation.

"Yeah, how'd you know? I didn't picture you as a guitarist," Spike responded, seeming a little less annoyed and a little more intrigued now.

Twlight raised her hands to dismiss the notion. "Oh, I'm not, but I've done a lot of research on the subject. I've also listened to a lot of recordings, so I can tell the style of playing by the sound, that's all."

Spike uttered a low grunt and rose from his chair. He approached her and placed his hands on her shoulders, startling her. Twilight could feel the warmth filling her cheeks. Her eyes seemed to lock onto his, and she couldn't break her gaze. "Do you ever actually do anything?" he asked. "All you ever talk about is how you've read books on this subject or that subject, but I never hear you talk about doing the things you read about." He spun her around so that her back was facing his bed. With a gentle push, he moved her in that direction and made her sit down.

"What are you doing, Spike?" Twilight asked, her mind afire with all manners of scenarios, from the most innocent to the most perverse.

"I'm going to make you finally do something," was his reply.

Rainbow Dash casually walked through the library doors, her face still wet with sweat from her evening practice session. She had wanted to stay at the track a little longer, but between the setting sun and the looming meeting Spike had requested, she had called it quits and headed for the library. Technically she still had fifteen minutes before she was due to be there, but those could be killed with video games.

She gave the crotchety old lady at the front desk a lazy wave as she walked by, and then began to wind her way through the rows of bookshelves. The school's library truly was a sight to behold, and it always made her feel a bit guilty that she wasn't much of a reader. People had worked hard to write these books, and they deserved to be read. _Well, everyone has their own talents, right? You can't do everything _she rationalized, increasing her pace. After a few moments, she finally emerged from the final section of bookshelves. She approached the lone door on the back wall and raised her hand to knock, but froze when she heard voices within.

"Ouch Spike, can't you be more gentle? This is my first time," she heard Twilight say.

"Sorry, sorry. Let's try this position instead," came Spike's voice in reply. A few seconds later he continued, "How does that feel?"

"A lot better, admittedly."

As she listened to the exchange, Rainbow Dash couldn't help but blush. She tried to tell herself that she had to be misunderstanding the situation, but with those kinds of phrases there wasn't much else she could imagine. _What should I do? _she wondered.

Spike was kneeling on the bed with his arms wrapped around Twilight. She held his guitar in her hands, and he was taking the liberty of positioning her fingers into the shape of an F Barre Chord. As he pressed her index finger down over the first fret, she cried out, "Ouch Spike, can't you be more gentle? This is my first time."

He grimaced as she scolded him. It was easy to forget how much this chord hurt when you first learned it, especially since it was now second nature to him. "Sorry, sorry. Let's try this position instead," he replied as he shifted her index finger to only cover the first two strings on the first fret. He positioned her middle finger on the second fret of the third string and her pinky on the third fret of the fourth string. "How does that feel?" He asked.

"A lot better, admittedly, " Twilight responded. He could see that her fingers were quivering as they struggled to hold the shape, though. She tried to strum the chord, but only received a deadened sound. Frustrated, she removed her hand from the neck and laid the guitar across her lap. "This is harder than I imagined."

Spike couldn't help but laugh. "See? Reading about something and actually experiencing it are two different things entirely. The guitar's a pain in the butt to learn, but it's rewarding when you do figure it out. I picked it up after leaving the band, hoping to write my own music."

Twilight turned to look at him from behind those half-moon glasses. They were small, and they fit her face quite well. The look was undeniably cute. "I have to admit, I admire you, Spike. You've been put in an unbelievable position, and yet you still power through every day with a smile on your face and your own personal goals. It's... inspiring, really." She seemed to be leaning closer to him, and he wasn't sure how to react.

_Is she trying to... nah, this sort of thing only happens in movies _he thought to himself. Still, her face was inching ever closer to his. Whether her intentions matched his thoughts he never found out, though, for a knock at the door caused Twilight to jump back and look away. With an annoyed sigh Spike rose from the bed and walked to the door, pulling it open. On the other side stood Applejack, with Rainbow Dash and Rarity behind her.

"What in tarnation is goin' on in there?" Applejack asked. "Rarity 'n I showed up and found Rainbow Dash pacing by the door. She said she heard some weird things being said in here."

Spike stared at her blankly for a moment. _Weird things? I was just showing her how to play the guitar. What's so weird about..._ his thoughts trailed off as he realized how the exchange between Twilght and himself could be misinterpreted. He quickly raised his hands and said, "Hey, I was just showing her how to play the guitar. That's all. I swear!" He pointed at Twilight, who still had the guitar seated in her lap. Applejack looked from Spike to Twilight and back again. Then she turned to Rainbow Dash and gave her an aggravated look.

"What? I just told you what I heard! Anyone would have misunderstood that!" Dash said in defense. Next to her, Rarity shook her head and cut in.

"At any rate, we were invited here for a reason. Instead of standing around and making a big deal out of nothing, why don't we let Spike do what he needs to do?" As he listened to Rarity's comment, Spike felt himself snap back into reality. The reason he had asked everyone here suddenly snapped back to him, and he quickly ushered the three girls into the room.

"Please have a seat at the table," he said to them, indicating the low-sitting table in the center of the room. He closed the door and then approached the end of the table closest to him. All four girls sat cross-legged on the floor, Twilight and Rainbow Dash to his left, Rarity and Applejack to his right.

"Say, why aren't Fluttershy and Pinkie Pie here?" Applejack asked, drawing nods of agreement from the other girls.

"They had... other things to do," Spike replied. "I'll fill them in later." Instead of sitting down, he walked around the table to the mini fridge he kept in the corner of the room. "This is going to take a while, so how about a few drinks?"

He knelt down in front of the fridge and removed five plastic cups from the stack on top of the appliance. With shaking hands, he opened the door and withdrew a bottle of juice that, despite being completely full, had the safety seal cracked. He began to pour an equal amount of juice in each cup, being careful not to spill a single drop. When he was done, only a small amount of juice remained in the container. This remainder went back into the refrigerator. With that done, he began to hand the cups to the girls, until each of them had one. He then grabbed his own cup and returned to the head of the table, seating himself in the same fashion as the girls. They all seemed to be staring at him, and he fought to restrain the trembling that was arising in his body. _They know _he thought to himself. He gave his head a slight shake to clear his thoughts. _No, that's impossible._

"Well, aren't you going to try it?" he asked, raising his own cup to his lips. To his relief, the girls seemed to follow suit, each of them drinking deeply from their cups. As they finished, they sat their cups back onto the table. Several seconds later, all four of the girls' heads followed suit. They laid there, unmoving. Spike breathed a sigh of relief and spat the juice in his mouth back into his cup. "I thought that was going to blow up in my face," he muttered, rising from the table and circling around it, checking to make sure that the four girls were indeed unconscious. Upon confirming this information, he calmly walked to the door, opened it and exited the room, locking the door behind him. He reached into his pocket and withdrew his cell phone. Using the 7th speed dial setting, he placed his call. After a few rings, that distorted voice answered on the other end.

"What do you have to report?" it asked.

Spike's response was short and simple, "It's done."

**End of Chapter Notes: **_Iron Fist_ is the property of Coheed and Cambria. All other notes can be found on my blog, which is linked in my profile. I had also recorded a sound bit for the section where Spike is playing the guitar. I will post a link on the blog for those interested. Finally, I put the bolded words at the beginning of each scene shift for ease of understanding. When I write the chapters, I use asterisks to mark the changes. Apparently FFNet doesn't like the asterisks, as it refuses to display them. I didn't realize this before. Sorry for any previous confusion.


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